Soldiers Can Now Steer Robot Dogs With Brain Signals
A small sensor tucked neatly behind the ear allowed soldiers to mentally guide robotic quadrupeds.
PATRICK TUCKER | MARCH 22, 2023
DRONES ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
A breakthrough that enables a human to guide a robot merely by thinking could help troops on a future battlefield to communicate with a wide array of sensors, vehicles, and robots—all while the enemy is looking to intercept radio communications.
A new paper, published this month in Applied Nano Materials by Australian researchers working with the country’s Defence Department, documents how a test subject directed a ground robot to waypoints simply by visualizing them through a Microsoft HoloLens.
The U.S. military has achieved some remarkable success with brain-computer interfaces. In 2015, a paralyzed woman with a brain chip developed through the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, or DARPA, was able to pilot a virtual F-35 using only brain signals. But such chips must be surgically implanted. And sensors that can be worn over the skin typically require gels for better electrical conduction. That just doesn’t work well for soldiers in helmets.
https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2023/03/soldiers-can-now-steer-robot-dogs-brain-signals/384338/
