DeviceGuru

Scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have demonstrated a robotic arm being operated by a monkey’s brain activity. Signals transmitted by a microcontroller implanted in the monkey’s brain enable the animal to robotically feed itself pieces of fruit in an effortless and natural manner.

Photo sequence showing the monkey feeding itself using the robotic arm
(Source: University of Pittsburgh website)

An article in the University’s magazine reports that the robotic arm’s movement is “smooth and almost … natural.” The monkey “[moves] the anthropomorphic arm just by thinking about it. He controls the out-of-body device in the same way that you blink, or walk, or roll your tongue,” the article continues.

The chip implanted in the monkey’s brain processes signals generated by 50-60 neurons that are normally used for operating the animal’s real arm. The electrical signals from the implanted microprocessor are transformed by a desktop PC into control signals that operate the robotic arm.

During the experiment, the monkey’s arm is strapped to its side, thereby encouraging the animal to utilize the same set of arm-controlling neurons for operating the plastic robotic arm to feed itself.

Andrew Schwartz, the principal researcher and currently a professor of neurobiology in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine, is claimed by the article to be the first researcher to “successfully translate neuronal signals into direct robotic control that mimics human movements.”

Schwartz’s robotic shoulder and elbow technology provide “a total of four degrees of freedom, just like a human arm,” the article adds. The arm’s movements are said to be “faster and more accurate than what other researchers have produced.”

Schwartz hopes to begin tests of robotic arms on human patients within three to five years. While the current robotic arm has a three-pronged gripper, he plans to add anthropomorphic wrists and fingers to the device. This enhancement is expected to be extremely challenging, since these parts of the human anatomy have more than 20 degrees of freedom.

Schwartz is described by the article as a “half-neuroscientist, half-engineer who, as a child, took clocks apart and figured out how to put them back together.”

For further details, read the complete University of Pittsburgh magazine article and visit the University’s systems neurophysiology lab.