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University of Minnesota Professor Bin He stands by a brain-controlled helicopter. His lab has been working on brain-computer interfaces for more than 10 years.

In a gymnasium in Minnesota, a small quadrotor drone flies effortlessly through hoops. But look for its pilot, and it's not obvious who it is, because it's being flown by someone's brain.

Scientists at the University of Minnesota have designed and tested the world's first noninvasive, brain-controlled helicopter in a breakthrough that could one day allow people who are paralyzed to operate wheelchairs, robotic arms or electronics using only their minds. The study is described in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

[WATCH: DARPA Creates Bionic Fingers That Can 'Feel']

The project was carried out by Bin He, whose lab has been working on brain-computer interfaces for more than 10 years. To fly the drone, a commercially-available Parrot AR.Drone 2.0, the pilot simply needs to "imagine" making a fist. A cap with 64 electrode sensors picks up the pilot's brainwaves and directs them through a computer, which wirelessly transmits them to the drone. To fly left, the pilot imagines making a fist with his left hand – to fly right, he imagines making a fist with his right hand. Imagining making a fist with both hands flies the helicopter up.

"We've demonstrated for the first time that this kind of thing can be done nonintrusively," says He. Previous brain-computer interfaces have had to connect a chip to a subject's brain in order to accurately control a device using brain waves.

Before flying, the average pilot needs to train for about 10 hours – a computer picks up the electric signals sent by the brain so that it can interpret them later, when the pilot is actually flying the drone. He says that merely thinking about making a fist causes the brain to react in a similar way to when a person actually makes a fist, making the technology potentially useful for people who are paralyzed.

"The brainwaves contain signatures for each person, but there are some common features from person to person," he says. "There's a high degree of similarity between imagining or thinking of movement as compared with actually moving that part of the body."

He said he wanted to use a helicopter because it is inherently more difficult to control than an object on a flat surface. In order for the technology to be useful for people in the future, they have to be able to effortlessly perform complex movements.

[ALSO: Are Armed Drones the Next Gun Debate?]

"It's not that complicated to move a car on a surface compared with the three dimensions of a helicopter in the sky," he says.

After the team's successful test, they are in the early stages of designing a test for people who have been paralyzed.

"This has to be a step-by-step process, but we'd like to move to disabled patients soon," he says. "We want to allow them to control a wheelchair or switch the channel on a television using just their thoughts."

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Add search-and-rescue to the list of Multi Rotor Capabilities! 

A Saskatchewan man, lost, alone and hypothermic, was found by an RC quadcopter that spotted him from the sky using an infrared camera.  The 25-year-old had wandered away from where his car rolled on Highway 5 near St. Denis, about 40 kilometres east of Saskatoon, early Thursday morning. 

Emergency crews arrived at the accident scene after midnight, but couldn’t find the driver. “He had suffered a head injury in the crash and became disorientated and wandered off,” said emergency crew corporal Doug Green.

Two hours after the rollover, the man phoned 911 and said he was lost and cold wearing only a t-shift, pants and had no shoes. The GPS on his phone was used to narrow down the search area. A STARS helicopter used night vision and a search light, but couldn’t find him.

That’s when Green came in with the Dragan Flyer X4-ES, a type of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that weighs just over four pounds, with an infrared camera. “When I put the Dragan Flyer up, I put it up in a hover mode … and just did a slow rotation,” Green said. The infrared camera identified three heat signatures within five minutes – one was the missing man, the other two were likely animals, Green explained. “Something hot will be white, whereas cold is dark. So, it’s very easy to spot animals and human beings.”

Volunteer firefighters from the Vonda and Prud’homme fire departments then went to that spot where they found the man curled up in a ball at the base of a tree next to a snow bank. He was unresponsive and taken to hospital with hypothermia. Green said he’s now in stable condition, but this could have turned out much worse without the Dragan Flyer. “We wouldn’t have found him until later on today and he wouldn’t have made it,” Green said. Green has been operating the Dragan Flyer for about a year-and-a-half and said it is typically used to take pictures from the air of accident scenes. He said this is the first time it has ever been used to find a missing person.

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Positive progress in the state of UAV legislation

Airborne scanning using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is widely recognized as a potentially huge opportunity for the private sector. However, it has also been widely noted that legislation is lagging behind technical capabilities and end-user demands (see myreport from the last SPAR Europe, for instance).

However, things may be starting to move in the right direction, as explained to SPAR International 2013 delegates by Nick Palatiello, Assistant Executive Director for External Affairs with the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS).

"There are 36 [US] states that have introduced or have some sort of UAV legislation in the state legislatures. MAPPS is working to make sure that the private sector is able to use UAVs in the commercial market. Right now it's limited only to law enforcement agencies, to universities, but we are trying to make sure that the private sector is able to use these for commercial purposes," said Palatiello.

He noted that two states have already had UAV legislation signed by their Governors – Virginia and Idaho. In the case of the former it is "a two-year moratorium that starts July 1st. It really goes after law enforcement being able to use UAVs." In the case of Idaho, which passed last week and also goes into effect in July, "it targets mostly state law enforcement, however, it does have an exemption specifically for mapping or resource management," explained Palatiello. "That's a big deal - that's one of the first states that has an exemption for mapping. It does allow for the private sector - when the FAA finally allows the private sector to use UAVs – for mapping not to be restricted, so that's a big win for us."

He added that another state (Georgia) has a similar provision in its legislation and that a number of states are now addressing the issue.

http://www.sparpointgroup.com/News/Vol11No17-Positive-progress-in-the-state-of-UAV-legislation/

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