Continuous and Spontaneous speed control of a robotic arm using SSVEP

The SSVEP (Steady-State Visually Evoked Potential) paradigm, as most of the BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) paradigms, provides discrete control that can be used to control the motion of a robotic arm with pre-determined discrete steps. The continuous and spontaneous control can be achieved with the SSVEP paradigm using eye-accommodation with a single flicker stimulus. In this setup, a subject can continuously modulate his/her SSVEP magnitude by focusing at different distances between the stimulus and the subject. This paper presents such a setup in which a subject could continuously and spontaneously control the speed of a robotic arm in a particular direction by continuously modulating his SSVEP magnitude. The online performance analysis showed that the subject could control the speed in the range 0-100% with an rms error of 21%.