Robotic Arm Controlled by Brain Implants

Brazil to Have World's First Robotic-Arm Surgery Controlled by Patient's Brain
Written by Newsroom
Thursday, 16 June 2005

Miguel Nicolelis, a world-renowned Brazilian neuroscientist will perform the world's first operation on a human that will allow the brain of the patient being operated on to control robotic arms.
The Teaching and Research Institute of the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital in São Paulo (Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa do Hospital Sirio-Libanes), announced today a unique scientific agreement in Brazil.
Nicolelis, who is a professor of neurobiology and biomedical engineering and do-director of the Neuroengineering Center of Duke University, signed an agreement on behalf of the Alberto Santos Dumont Association to Support Research (Associação Alberto Santos Dumont de Apoio à Pesquisa - AASDAP) with the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital to provide for the first operation on a human that will allow the patient's brain to control robotic arms.

With the help of specialists from the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital on the surgical team, within about three years, the first operation in the world to implant a neuro-prosthesis (brain-machine interface) to restore mobility to the arms of a patient with severe body paralysis should take place. The patient will use impulses from the brain to control the movement of mechanical prostheses.


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