Cyborg Friday: Monkeys Feed Themselves With Mind Controlled Robot Arm
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 30 of May , 2008 at 2:30 am
Never underestimate the brain power of a hungry monkey. Neurological engineers at the University of Pittsburgh have been able to train two macaque monkeys to feed themselves with a robotic arm wired directly into their brain, marking the first time a a brain-controlled limb has done anything more than demonstrate a proof of concept. Researchers first trained the monkeys to operate the arm with a joysick, and watched what was going on in their brains while they did it. The monkeys then had their arms restrained, and electrodes attached to a group of about 100 cells in the motor cortex part of the brain interpreted the signals the monkeys were sending to their biological arm, and used them to control the robotic arm.
The process took some practice, but the monkeys figured it out in only a few weeks, achieving success rates of over 60%. The robotic arm isn’t simple, either, with both shoulder and elbow joints and a grasping hand. One monkey was even able to scarf down treats and control the arm and the same time, even directing the arm around objects or compensating when the researchers moved the food. Currently, this particular system requires all kinds of infrastructure (computers, technicians, etc) to get it to work, but in principle this concept should be transferable to humans.
VIA [ New Scientist ]
Category: Cybernetics
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Comment by bla
Made Friday, 30 of May , 2008 at 5:20 am
As they are partially blocking the view of the monkey’s head, I can imagine what it looks like. I guess they are eating monkey brain for desert tonight. Like in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.