Make a Mind-Controlled Arduino Robot: Use Your Brain as a Remote

Build a robot that responds to electrical activity in your brain--it's easy and fun. If you're familiar with Arduino and have basic mechanical building skills, this book will show you how to construct a robot that plays sounds, blinks lights, and reacts to signals from an affordable electroencephalography (EEG) headband. Concentrate and the robot will move. Focus more and it will go faster. Let your mind wander and the robot will slow down.

This is an excellent book that has helped a number of my students work on neurocomputing controls using the Arduino microcontroller and an inexpensive single-sensor Neurosky EEG headset. -K Hausman


The level of attention controls the speed of the robot. Steering (left and right) is controlled with automatic line avoidance.

Absolutely tops! I am a total 'newbie' to electronics - this was exactly what I wanted to learn, and they taught it! -Helene Tomlinson

You'll find complete instructions for building a simple robot chassis with servos, wheels, sensors, LEDs, and a speaker. You also get the code to program the Arduino microcontroller to receive wireless signals from the EEG. Your robot will astound anyone who wears the EEG headband.

For a bright 12-year-old (with a little adult participation) on up, this is one of the best ways to get into robotics. -Rick Cook

This book will help you:

• Connect an inexpensive EEG device to Arduino
• Build a robot platform on wheels
• Calculate a percentage value from a potentiometer reading
• Mix colors with an RGB LED
• Play tones with a piezo speaker
• Write a program that makes the robot avoid boundaries
• Create simple movement routine