Project of the Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV) APVV-0668-12

Project duration: 10/2013 – 09/2017

Principal investigator: Ing. Mgr. Roman Rosipal, PhD.

We will apply advanced tools and methods of applied informatics for the design and development of an intelligent system allowing the users to go through the process of self-controlled training of impaired motor pathways. We will combine the brain-computer interface (BCI) technology with a robotic arm system into a compact system that can be used as a robot-assisted neurorehabilitation tool. The BCI directly uses the signal of the brain electrical activity to allow users to operate the environment without any muscular activation. However, several critical issues need to be addressed before using BCI in neurorehabilitation, namely, issues ranging from signal acquisition and selection of the proper BCI paradigm to the evaluation of the affective state, cognitive load and system acceptability of the users. The project will address these issues by using new signal processing and machine learning algorithms, training protocols and intelligent methods for the users' physiological state changes detection and monitoring, recently developed by the researchers participating in the project. Novel BCI training protocols, including the neurofeedback training based on multi-way analysis of EEG data, will be used and validated. Finally, the system will be tested in clinical practice on selected patients with motor impairments caused by stroke, as well as on healthy volunteers.