A Quadrotor Helicopter Control System Based on Brain-computer Interface

This paper explores a novel controlling method for quadrotor helicopter, which enables the user to control it by his mind. We propose the use of non-invasive Brain-computer Interface to control the attitude of the quadrotor helicopter. The electroencephalography (EEG) signal is collected by the Emotiv EPOC, which has fourteen saline sensors. In our tests, the BCI only takes into account the detection of three trained mind events (think left hand, think right hand and think both hands). A Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) position controller is designed for the quadrotor helicopter system. Therefore, three kinds of EEG signals correspond to the three attitude of quadrotor helicopter (yaw, pitch and roll). Ten subjects were invited to attend the experiments. The experimental results showed that the average control accuracy was 56.3% and the average transmission rate was 9.8 bits/min.