First Uruguayan Robotic Vehicle Hackathon Controlled by Brain Computer Interfaces

This project was about the development of a Brain-Computer Interface to control wireless robotic vehicles using Steady State Visual Evoked Potentials, with the aim of promoting the design and development of assistive technologies among university students and professors. Two teams participated, made up of a total of 11 students from the Biomedical Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering and Information Technology degrees of the Technological University of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, thus allowing a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to the problem. First of all, each team, working independently in sub-groups, was divided into three main modules that were addressed in parallel; these were, (i) Module 1, visual stimulator design (hardware and software), Electroencephalography (EEG) acquisition, registration and processing, EEG feature extraction and classification using machine learning algorithms in order to generate control commands from the EEG processing; (ii) Module 2, wireless communication design between modules 1 and 3; (iii) Module 3, hardware and soft-ware design and development for robotic vehicle control using the orders obtained from Module 1. Finally, the three modules were combined to obtain a Brain Computer Interface that allowed controlling the designed vehicles, using the processing of brain signals captured from the scalp of students themselves. To motivate the teams, a race was held, where the challenge was to go through a 10 m long track with obstacles to overcome in the shortest possible time. This competition was the first of its kind in Uruguay.