The full-day workshop will be held at ICRA 2009 in Kobe (Japan), on May 12th within the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

Goal and Scope

Brain-Machine Interfaces encompass a growing and increasing community that merges researchers and industry with the objective of creating applications and solutions to ameliorate the quality of life of human beings. This challenging research area involves a tight cooperation of neuroscience, computer science, and biomedical engineering among others. With the understanding of the human brain and the rapid development of the instrumentation, signal processing and machine learning; brain machine interfaces are reaching real rehabilitation applications that require robotics developments. The neurocontrol of devices is certainly an interesting and promising research area that is only at the beginning of scientific and practical exploration.

In response to this growing interest in neurosignal actuated devices, several initiatives are starting to pave the path toward a full series of neurodevices. Researchers are investigating the neural correlates concerning the human perception and motion to create a direct interface between the brain and a prosthetic device, in virtually, the same way that we humans proceed. Other researches are applying brain machine learning technology to directly interact with autonomous mobile robots in applications like intelligent wheelchairs or teleoperation between remote scenarios.

Individuals with severe neuromuscular impairments and those involved in rehabilitation therapy are potential beneficiaries of assistive technology, not only for improved mobility but also for improved outcomes in recovery. In addition, this research is starting to find a new path in the amusement arena.

Intended audience
Both young and established researchers in the fields of neurosciences, robotics, rehabilitation engineering, biomedical engineering, and health sciences will be encouraged to participate in this workshop. Graduate students from universities cited above will also participate. This workshop is also opened to companies interested in having a panorama of the area and the possible application and deployment domains.