Autonomuos Robot Control based on EEG and Cross-
Correlation
D. Hari Krishna
Associate Professor, ECE Dept.
B.V. Raju Institute of Technology
Narsapur, Telanagana, India
harikrishna.dodde@bvrit.ac.in
Abstract: This paper focuses on the real time control of
autonomous robot through the detection of multiple types of
motor imagery. The EEG data contains when subject performs
imagery motor activity. The motor imagery activity includes
movements of left hand, right hand, left leg and right leg. For
feature extraction, the cross-correlation method is used to
calculate six statistical features (mean, median, mode,
maximum, minimum, and standard deviation). For
classification, Support Vector Machine (SVM) was used. As
SVM is binary classifier, one verses rest approach is
implemented for multiclass classification.
Keywords: BCI, Cross-Correlation, EEG, Motor Imagery
I. INTRODUCTION
The humans communicate or interface with outside
world by using some muscles of human body. The brain
generates the intension which transmits through the neurons
to the muscles to stimulate the movement. The BCI or Brain
Computer Interface system uses either “Active” or
“Reactive” approach [Zander and Kothe, 2011] to generate
similar intents which can be decoded using neuroimaging
methods and can be used to control or operate external
devices. Even though the main intent behind developing
such systems to provide assistance to individuals with motor
disabilities or neurological diseases such ALS [Mak and
Wolpaw, 2009, Wolpaw et al., 2002], recent studies revealed
that the BCI approaches can be used in the area of
recreational activities such as gaming and virtual reality
devices [Lécuyer et al., 2008].
Electroencephalogram (EEG) is the most used
neuroimaging technique in Brain Computer Interface
research. Even though EEG provides very low spatial
resolution, the main reason of its popularity lies in the low
cost, portability and high temporal resolution. The EEG
machine used in this study is 24-channel portable EEG
machine manufactured by NCC medical Corp.
EEG based BCI paradigms find wide ranging
applications using event-related synchronization/
desynchronization (ERD/ERS), p300 (using speller or
oddball paradigms), and steady- state visual evoked
potentials (SSVEP) [Bashashati et al., 2007, Mak et al.,
2012, Muller-Putz and Pfurtscheller, 2008]. Some of the
recent studies also use hybrid approaches in order to get
Jigar Patel
Lab Instructor, ECE Dept.
B.V. Raju Institute of Technology
Narsapur, Telanagana, India
Jigar.patel@bvrit.ac.in
better performance. ERD/ERS is mainly elicited when an
individual has periods of rest followed by intended or actual
movement. SSVEP is elicited under the influence of
flickering visual stimuli presented ipsilaterally or
contralaterally. p300 is a waveform elicited in the EEG time
series when a person attends/ searches for a particular
stimulus around 300 milliseconds after the stimulus
presentation. In this study, we used Imagination of motor
movement or Motor Imagery.
II. METHOD
A. Data Acquisition:
A portable EEG unit and cap manufactured by NCC
medical corp. was used. The EEG system recorded from 23
channels with the sampling rate of 128 Hz arranged in
standard 10-20 system around the scalp. The EEG signals
were band pass filtered 0.1-40 Hz. The raw data was stored
in system native .NED format which were subsequently
converted to a .TXT file for further processing using
software supplied by the NCC medical. Data acquisition was
controlled by EEG system and experimental design was
controlled by Psychophysics toolbox in MATLAB.
MATLAB was used for all subsequent data processing. For
real time processing, the data is stored in a buffer which is
read by MATLAB program approximately every 250
milliseconds.
B. Experiment Design
Jeannerod et al. (1995) reported that the Motor Imagery
activity also activates the similar brain area as the actual or
physical motor activity. In this study, we use the same
paradigm. This study mainly aims for real time classification
of EEG signals. The subjects are required to undergo a
session to provide data to train the classifier. For the training
session, subjects are instructed to perform one of the four
types of motor imagery activity according the symbols
appear on the screen in front of them. This data is then used
to train the classifier and in separate session, subject is
instructed to perform same motor imagery activity in order to
control the autonomous robot. There are 50 trials of data for
each types of motor imagery are collected in first session to
train the classifier. Each of the trial consists of performing a
particular motor imagery activity for three seconds followed
by three seconds of relax or resting time. The experiment The six statistical values, mean, median, mode, standard
setup is shown in figure 1. deviation, maximum and minimum calculated from cross-
correlation sequence are the aspects that symbolize the brain
activity for imagination of the motor activity [Siuly et al.
2012]. These six statistical values are used as features in the
present study.
The features were extracted from EEG signals using
cross-correlation techniques by,
 One of the EEG channels is selected as a Reference
Channel(e.g. Cz)
 The selected channel is correlated with all other
channels
Figure 1 Experiment Setup
 The six statistical features (mean, median, mode,
standard deviation, maximum and minimum) are
C. Pre-Processing of Data calculated from resulted sequence.
To remove line noise form the data, 59 Hz notch filter is The step-by-step process for training the classifier is shown
applied first. We employed 12 point moving average filter in Figure 2(a). As we are using one verses rest approach for
and band-pass filter of range 8-30 Hz to remove the basic multiclass classification, the last four steps are repeated for
noise. each types of motor imagery activity. The end result will be
four classifiers trained for each type of motor imagination
D. Epoch extraction activity. The classifier used for classification is Support
The Data for training the classifier contains four types of Vector Machine (SVM).
motor imagery activities. The data for these mental activities
were separated and put together into the bins designated for
the particular motor imagery activity. The time stamps
required for the separation of events or mental activities are
generated at the time of data collection by the program
which displays the stimulus. The latency time between the
starting of EEG recording and start of experiment is
carefully monitored. This latency time helps us discard the
EEG data which is recorded before the start of the actual
experiment. The length of each epoch is three seconds.
E. Classifier Training
The multichannel EEG signals are interrelated with each
other and the amount of information from EEG signals from
different places on scalp is not same [Meng et al. 2009]. In
this study, we used cross-correlation technique to measure
the similarity between signals and use it as a feature
extraction technique. The cross-correlation technique can
only measure similarity between two signals so in order to
classify between four types of mental activities; we
employed one verses rest approach.
The cross-correlation between two signals is calculated by,
𝑁−|𝑚|−1

𝑅𝑥𝑦 [𝑚] = ∑ 𝑥[𝑖]𝑦[𝑖 − 𝑚];  Figure 2. The Process for Classifier Training and Real Time Classification
𝑖=0

𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑚 = −(𝑁 − 1), −(𝑁 − F. Autonomous Robot Operation:

2), … … .0,1,2,3, … … (𝑁 − 2), (𝑁 − 1)
….. (1)
𝑅𝑥𝑦 [𝑚] is the cross-correlated sequence at m lag. If each
of the signals, x and y, consists of M finite number of
samples, the resultant cross-correlation sequence has 2M-1
samples.
The National Instruments SBRIO-9632 along with
robotic starter kit 2.0 was used in this study. As a prototype
the total control system was implemented and tested the
offline commands. The control system was designed with
respect of four types of control commands which
corresponds to the four types of motor imagery activity. The
commands were Forward, Backward, Turn Left and turn
Right. These commands were triggered when motor
imagery activity of Left Leg Movement, Right Leg
Movement, Left Hand Movement and Right Hand
Movement is detected respectively. The commands were
transmitted to the robot wirelessly via ZigBee Module. The
movement speed of robot is 5 centimeters per second and
the turning angle is set to 90◦ though the robot is capable of
having finer turning angle.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure 3.(a) Autonomous robot starts moving after receiving
command. (b) Robot is avoiding obstacle by moving around it. (c)
Robot turns to left after encountering path line (d) Robot reaches
its destination
While in operation, upon receiving a control command,
robot will take action and for very short time (while action
is being performed) the subsequent commands will be
ignored. For example, after receiving the command of
turning left, the subsequent commands will be ignored until
robot finishes turning left (by 90◦). Also, when robot is
moving forward, the command to move backward will cause
it to stop moving and similarly, when robot is moving
backward, the command to move forward will result in
robot stop moving. In addition, after receiving command of
moving forward or backward, the robot will continue
moving until command to move backward or move forward
is received respectively. Figure 3 shows the example
movement of robot from point A to point B.
III. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
In this study, we employed a cross-correlation based
technique to classify between four types of mental activity of
imagination of motor movement to operate the autonomous
robot. The approximation of performance based on subject
feedback is shown in table 1.
TABLE 1
APPROXIMATION OF SYSTEM PERFORMANCE BASED ON
SUBJECT FEEDBACK
Subject Approx. rate of MI activity detection
1 66
2 68
3 62
4 59
In this system, we cannot precisely determine the accuracy of
the classification in real time. So, the results were obtained
from the feedback of subjects over several testing sessions.
Each subject had several sessions to control the autonomous
robot. The duration of each session was five minutes. After
each session, the subjects were asked to give feedback on the
responsiveness of the system or how often system detected
the motor imagery activity the subject is performing. Based
on these results we can conclude that the system performs
well.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT (Heading 5)
The preferred spelling of the word “acknowledgment” in
America is without an “e” after the “g.” Avoid the stilted
expression “one of us (R. B. G.) thanks ...”. Instead, try “R.
B. G. thanks...”. Put sponsor acknowledgments in the
unnumbered footnote on the first page.
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