- Title: PORTUGAL-BRAIN CONTROLLED DRONE Pilots fly drones using mind over matter
- Date: 27th April 2015
- Summary: LISBON, PORTUGAL (MARCH 16, 2015) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) TEKEVER CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER, RICARDO MENDES, SAYING: "We want to apply this in other areas not only in UAVs but other types of technology. For example, we want even to bring this to the mass market, so ideally if you have Brainflight, if you have this technology available to you, you can enter your home and connect and disconnect devices with your mind or if you are a disabled person, for example you would be able to control your wheelchair by only using your mind, that's our goal."
- Embargoed: 12th May 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Portugal
- Country: Portugal
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA6VO44Z0F3CYE3BDGXYAFBEHBS
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A Portuguese aerospace company is taking mind control to a new level - the skies.
An unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, took flight in Portugal in February, controlled by human thought.
Tekever's chief operations officer Ricardo Mendes says the aim was to combine aeronautical engineering with neuroscience research to show that an aircraft does not have to be controlled by a pilot's hands.
"With Brainflight, Tekever created a technology that allows us to control a drone with our minds freeing up our all our other, our arms, our legs, etc," he said.
The technology developed by Tekever is known as the Brainflight project and uses high performance electroencephalogram (EEG) systems to convert signals from the brain into drone commands.
Pilots wear an EEG cap fitted with electrodes to monitor electric signals from the brain. These are translated into control commands for the drones by algorithms.
According to Pedro Sinogas, Tekevar's CEO, "The brain approach that Tekever is using is based on collecting the signals from the brain, then a set of algorithms process all the brain signals and transform them into actual controls to multiple devices."
The pilot's brain signals determine the flight path and researchers determine the mission before the drone takes off.
This approach could be used for controlling other devices too, said Sinogas.
"In the demo that we did we used aircraft but it can be used in driving a car, driving a wheelchair or home devices," he said.
The researchers tested the brain-computer interface (BCI) system in different flight simulators, including a four seat, twin engine, propeller-driven aircraft simulator. The drone flights in February represented the first use of the system in a live flight.
While Tekever is keen to apply their technology to commercial aviation, it will be some time before passengers experience a flight operated by the brain signals of a pilot on the ground.
"What we want to do is to get the technology more mature, prove it on the ground, work with the authorities to bring it to the aerospace and to the aviation world and that will take something like 10 years probably," Mendes told Reuters.
Mendes says the technology has the potential to be applied more widely too, particularly for physically disabled people.
"We want to apply this in other areas not only in UAVs but other types of technology. For example we want even to bring this to the mass market, so ideally if you have Brainflight, if you have this technology available to you, you can enter your home and connect and disconnect devices with your mind or if you are a disabled person, for example you would be able to control your wheelchair by only using your mind, that's our goal," he said.
Tekever worked with Portugal's Champalimaud Foundation, the Netherlands' Eagle Foundation and Technische Universitat Munchen on the Brainflight project.
They hope the project will benefit the entire pilot community by enabling them to control aircraft in exactly the same way they perform everyday activities like walking.
Tekever also envisages applying the technology to advanced prosthetics and the control of other complex systems like cars, boats and trains.
The work follows in the footsteps of similar projects around the world. Chinese researchers from Zhejiang University demonstrated a quadcopter drone controlled by a similar EEG headset in 2012, while a University of Minnesota project the following year saw the American researchers use a brain-computer interface to steer a flying robot using brain signals. The University of Texas at San Antionio has also started developing a technology to enable soldiers to control drones using just brain signals. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None