A Wearable SSVEP-Based BCI System for Quadcopter Control Using Head-Mounted Device

Restoring the interaction between disabled people and the 3-D physical world via a brain-computer interface (BCI) is an exciting topic. To this end, we designed a wearable BCI system based on the steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), which enables 3-D navigation of quadcopter flight with immersive first-person visual feedback using a head-mounted device. In addition, to alleviate the user's operational burden, this paper provides asynchronous switch control for the users. The transitional state due to head movement in an asynchronous BCI was isolated online and translated into hover to eliminate its influence. The experimental results in the physical environment showed that the subjects could accomplish the 3-D flight tasks accurately and smoothly using our system. In particular, in this paper, we proposed an information transfer rate metric that is suitable for the asynchronous task. We demonstrated the feasibility of using the head-mounted device and a proper control strategy to facilitate the portability and practicability of the SSVEP-based BCI system for its navigation utility.