---
title: "New Mind-Controlled Robot Arm First to Work Without Brain Implant"
description: "Researchers have created the first noninvasive mind-controlled robot arm that exhibits the kind of smooth motion that previously required a brain implant."
date: "2019-06-20"
modified: "2019-06-20"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/mind-controlled-robot-arm-brain-implant"
categories:
  - "Brain"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "brain computer interface"
  - "mind control"
  - "paralysis"
---

# New Mind-Controlled Robot Arm First to Work Without Brain Implant

![Researchers have created the first noninvasive mind-controlled robot arm that exhibits the kind of smooth motion that previously required a brain implant.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/mind-controlled-robot-arm-brain-implant.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Shutterstock/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Approaching Avatar

If you want to control a robot with your mind — and really, who doesn't? — you currently have two options.

You can get a [brain implant](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/jets-pilots-mind-control-darpa>), in which case your control over the robot will be smooth and continuous. Or you can skip the risky, expensive surgery in favor of a device that senses your brainwaves from outside your skull — but your control over the bot will be [jerky and not nearly as precise](<https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161214085926.htm>).

Now, a team from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is narrowing the gap between those two options, creating the first [noninvasive mind-controlled robot arm](<https://engineering.cmu.edu/news-events/news/2019/06/20-he-sci-robotics.html>) that exhibits the kind of smooth, continuous motion previously reserved only for systems involving brain implants — putting us one step closer to a future in which we can all use our minds to [control the tech](<https://futurism.com/category/future-society>) around us.

## Smooth Operator

In a [paper](<https://robotics.sciencemag.org/content/4/31/eaaw6844>) published on Wednesday in the journal *Science Robotics*, the researchers describe how they used a combination of sensing and machine learning techniques to create a brain-computer interface (BCI) that could reach signals deep within the brains of participants wearing EEG headcaps.

To test their system, they asked the participants to use it to direct a robotic arm to point at a cursor as it moved around a computer screen. The robotic arm was able to continuously track the cursor in real-time with no jerky movements — an exciting first for a noninvasive BCI system.

## Mind-Controlled Future

While much of the focus on mind-controlled robots centers on people with movement disorders or [paralysis](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/a-tiny-new-implant-could-let-you-control-an-exoskeleton-with-your-mind>), CMU researcher Bin He envisions a future in which the tech is ubiquitous, benefiting the population as a whole.

"Despite technical challenges using noninvasive signals, we are fully committed to bringing this safe and economic technology to people who can benefit from it," He said in a [press release](<https://engineering.cmu.edu/news-events/news/2019/06/20-he-sci-robotics.html>). "This work represents an important step in noninvasive brain-computer interfaces, a technology which someday may become a pervasive assistive technology aiding everyone, like smartphones."

**READ MORE:** [First-ever noninvasive mind-controlled robotic arm](<https://engineering.cmu.edu/news-events/news/2019/06/20-he-sci-robotics.html>) \[Carnegie Mellon University\]

**More on mind control:** *[Military Pilots Can Control Three Jets at Once via a Neural Implant](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/jets-pilots-mind-control-darpa>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)