The control of the arm with the thoughts of two 8th graders

Controlled by Mind - Arm thinking of 2 brothers Phan Truong Anh Khoi and Nguyen Cong Huy (Trung Vuong Junior High School, Hanoi) is considered to be an applied product for those who unfortunately have missing arms.

Contributing to the press conference for STEM 2018 , Phan Truong Anh Khoi and Nguyen Cong Huy (Trung Vuong Secondary School) had a demonstration of a robot arm that could be controlled by thoughts.

This invention stems from the desire to be an artificial arm to help people with mobility impairments have a better life. Mr. Khoi shared:

'My uncle is a war invalid who has lost his right arm in the campaign of Khe Sanh. The left hand left only makes him very difficult in living. I always desire to do something to help you and to support people with disabilities, particularly those who lose their arms. '

That motivation helped Anh Khoi and Cong Huy, despite being an eighth-grader, successfully built the control arm with thought. Currently, their arms have performed simple movements such as grasping, opening according to their thoughts, controlling wrist rotation.

The robotic arm controlled by the thoughts of the two boys who were only 13-14 years old surprised many people. Although Khoi is a product that requires a lot of intelligence, Anh Khoi said, 'science does not distinguish age. If you're really passionate, age is not a barrier. '

That motivation makes their ideas step by step materialized into real life. In their products, they know how to integrate Emotiv Insight, 3D printing technology - industry 4.0 technology and programming languages.

This research allows the design, manufacture and application of artificial arm products at a low cost. First, the Emotiv Insight brainwave analyzer will collect brain electrical signals and send these signals to the computer via wifi or bluetooth. Computers are responsible for converting brain electrical signals into states that correspond to brain activity.

Phan Truong Anh Khoi and Nguyen Cong Huy (Trung Vuong Secondary School, Hanoi).

The states that are decrypted will be transmitted by the computer to the Arduino board. Arduino board receives commands and controls the motor according to the available scenario.

Thoughtful control can be carried out under many different motor scenarios through decoding thoughts that help the movement process as natural as a normal person.

In addition to decoding thoughts to control the arm, Huy and Khoi also added voice control to increase control options for the arm such as grip mode, pen mode, and use mode. Computer mouse . This combination will help the operation of the hand to be more stable and natural.

Mr. Khoi added, in the future, the group will continue to develop to manipulate the fingers to add movements in the elbow and wrist more flexibly, helping to perform many actions at the same time.

With the applicability and high humanity, reasonable costs to support people with disabilities or paralysis have helped the two students to be second in the "Science and Technology for high school students." City of 2017-2018 academic year ' field in robotics and smart machines; Also selected to introduce at the international level exam in the US in mid-May next.

STEM festival will take place at the University of Natural Sciences (Hanoi National University) on May 13th. During the festival, students will have access to 'learn how to learn' methods and learn how to solve problems through practice, experimenting with new technologies of the 4.0 era such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence, programming autonomous robots, virtual reality .

The festival also has more experience classes in a section on STEM orientation: programming, robots, funny chemistry, applied mathematics .

In addition, students will visit the area to display scientific discovery products such as decoding, makey (playing musical instruments with fruits), electrocution due to rubbing, magic tubes, painting with children. single shake, Kapla wood model construction, balance in natural world, self-propelled robot car, soap bubble .

They will also experience some extra activities such as doing indexing, making recyclables, making balloons, making puppets, making fun experiments (dragon hoses, flying plastic discs, giant soap bubbles . ), see the rubic robot demonstration, especially see an explosion experiment.