Paralysed man uses brainwaves to move robot 100km away

The team at the Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, said the experiment takes them a step closer to enabling immobile patients to interact with their surroundings through a robot “avatar”.

Yesterday, a paralysed patient at a hospital in the Swiss town of Sion imagined crunching his toes in order to direct a robot at the university 100km away. Mark-André Duc was paralysed after falling off a roof two years ago. However, a head cap fitted with 16 sensors was able to “read” the electrical impulses on his scalp after he imagined moving his paralysed feet and hands. When Mr Duc imagined clenching his feet, the robot was instructed to move left and when he imagined moving his hands the robot was instructed to move right.

The robot, resembling a vacuum cleaner fitted with a lap top, moved according to Mr Duc’s brain signals. The EPFL scientists were surprised to discover that the strongest brain signals came when he tried to imagine crunching his paralysed toes.

Yesterday, EPFL spokesman Michael Mitchell said the department was delighted with the results. “It is still a work in progress but today’s experiment showed he could pilot this robot using only the power of his mind. In the future we could see paraplegic patients able to move a wheelchair and we will be able to hook it up to a bed and the person will be able to raise and lower a bed.”

Similar experiments have taken place in the United States and Germany, but they either involved able-bodied patients or brain implants, whereas the Swiss team used only a simple cap to record the brain signals.

The developments in Switzerland are being monitored by Touch Bionics, the Scottish company that is doing pioneering work in prosthetics.

Yesterday, Danny Sullivan, of Touch Bionics, said: “Any such development has got to be a potential benefit for amputees or people with limb issues.”