Great Power Technology.

Chapter 266 Robotic Arm Peeling Bananas?

June 6st, Children's Day.

Two weeks after the mechanical exoskeleton project was approved and budgeted, the BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) Laboratory of Zhejiang University.

A researcher sat down in front of the screen with a face full of reluctance. Two colleagues behind him were quickly putting on the EEG headgear, and then turned on the controllers one by one, ready to start the day's experiment.

"Brother Chen, why is it always me? I really don't look like a guinea pig. Let's draw lots tomorrow, shall we? Whoever gets the lottery will do the experiment."

The National People’s Congress called Chen Li by him is Chen Li, who has a double doctorate in biology and electrical engineering. He is a rare genius in the field of BCI—of course, this technology has not been born for more than 100 years. , but in any case, his talent is obvious to all in the country.

"Zhu, don't struggle. Your EGG signal is the weakest in our entire laboratory. Only by using you can we achieve the best results."

"Besides, isn't it easy for you to sit here for a day without looking at data or calculating models, just closing your eyes and using your brain?"

The person sitting on the chair is Zhu Xuan. He is also a doctor of computer science. He has contributed many breakthrough convolutional neural network algorithm models to the BCI project of Zhejiang University. However, the experiment has now reached the final stage of correction and adjustment. His Work also gradually decreased.

Therefore, he was naturally regarded as a guinea pig. As soon as he arrived at the laboratory every day, he was pushed to a chair and put on the EGG headgear immediately, and began to test their newly developed robotic arm.

It was the same today, Zhu Xuan had already started his day's testing work before he even had time to eat breakfast.

Hearing Chen Li's words, he shook his head dissatisfied and said:
"You guys are too ruthless. The monkey who did the experiment before gave me a mouthful of bananas after operating correctly. What about me? I sat here for a whole morning and didn't even give me a drink of saliva."

"I really don't understand, what's the difference between me and a monkey?"

"...the monkey grows hair, but you don't."

"Then what if I grow hair too?"

".Then I'll give you a banana too. That's all right, stop talking, the device is connected, close your eyes, I'll put on an eye mask for you, and I need to calibrate your MI signal first."

The so-called MI signal is the motor imagination brain wave signal. This signal occurs when the brain tries to command the muscle group, but the neural pathway is blocked and cannot be transmitted. After capturing this signal through the EGG headgear, the brain will input the signal into the decoder. The decoder translates this signal into a mechanical electrical signal according to the MI translation model written by Zhu Xuan and his team, so as to direct the movement of the mechanical arm.

Zhu Xuan's arm has been firmly tied to the armrest of the chair, the purpose is to simulate the state of arm disability or loss of arm.

"Every time I sit on this chair, I always have a bad feeling, and I always feel like the whip is going to come up in the next second even if I have to wear the blindfold."

".Come on, Xiaoya, go and get the candles we prepared."

"Fuck! You're serious!"

Zhu Xuan's arm twitched suddenly, causing the whole chair to jump.

Because of the restriction of the restraint belt, his arm movement was not executed successfully. Instead, the mechanical arm on the side shrank suddenly, almost brushing against Chu Ya who was standing on the side.

"Brother, your reaction is too big. The MI signal transmission is normal, the data strength is ok, and the test can be carried out."

"No, I didn't react too much. I was afraid that you would really drop me with candles. I remember you said last time that you want to test the ability of the reflected signal to command the mechanical arm in an unconscious state. Isn't that what you are doing now? son?"

Chu Ya cast a helpless look at Chen Li, and then said:
"What should I do, Brother Chen, do you still have candles?"

"Come on, why not, but you have to test the basic operation first. Come on, Zhu, there is an apple in front of you, imagine, move your arm to the right about [-] centimeters, and then reach out to grab the apple. "

"Yes, yes, the location is right, how is it, can you feel it?"

Zhu Xuan on the seat put away his joking expression. Under the blindfold, he had closed his eyes and entered a state of meditation. Then, the mechanical arm began to move.

The speed of the mechanical arm is very fast, and the five knuckles are constantly flexing and extending, trying to grab the apple in front of it.

"Very good, you have touched it, can you feel the current signal?"

Zhu Xuan nodded slightly and replied:

"There is a tingling sensation in the shoulder, but it is not easy to re-establish this feeling in the logic system of the brain. I can't realize that this electric current comes from the touch of the mechanical arm to the object. Correct logic."

"This kind of operation is too counter-intuitive, Brother Chen, can you develop a system to convert pressure signals into tactile signals and write them back into the brain?"

"We're working on it. This is what the deeploop project is doing now. Didn't we just get the budget and go to supercalculation? After the supercomputation is completed, we can try to solve the electrical signal."

"But you should focus on electrical stimulation now. As long as you go through special training, it is not difficult to form a conditioned reflex. Come on, you continue, now you have three fingers touching the apple, can you feel the current? Hold tight, The current frequency should speed up."

Zhu Xuan nodded and replied:

"I can feel it. I should have touched all five fingers now. The five pre-buried points have electrical stimulation feedback. The frequency of the feedback area of ​​the middle finger, thumb, and index finger is the highest, which should be consistent with the force logic."

"Then there is no problem. Now lift the apple up, does the pressure stimulation area of ​​the arm respond?"

"There is a reaction, but it is very exciting and strong. This is not the weight of an apple at all, is it?"

Hearing Zhu Xuan's words, Chu Ya and Chen Li looked at each other with joyful expressions on their faces.

This is of course not an apple. What is currently held on the robotic arm is the spherical end of a dumbbell that Chen Li specially found from the gym.

The purpose of their doing this is purely to verify the real function of the FMA electrical stimulation feedback system on the robotic arm.

Judging from the current results, a trained user like Zhu Xuan can completely judge the object he is grasping through the electrode stimulation embedded in other sensory parts of the body without the help of visual and tactile feedback. of the basic situation.

If after long-term training, a complete set of thinking processing logic is formed for these electrical stimuli, users can even judge the shape of objects directly through the robotic arm, which will bring about a dramatic change in their technology.

Of course, such training must be difficult, because its essence is to break the inherent thinking logic of human body control, and then re-establish a new set of mechanical thinking logic, which is even more difficult than learning from the infant stage. difficulty.

However, for their users, this difficulty is really nothing.

Thinking of this, Chen Li explained:

"It's not an apple, it's a dumbbell. Zhu, you're a quick learner, so it looks like our system is basically usable. Come on, put the dumbbell down, and we'll move on to testing other things."

"Brother Chen, I've been sitting on this chair for half a month, can I learn quickly? Wait, what weird thing did you stuff into my hand?"

"This weight, how does this shape feel like a cylinder? The pressure between each finger is about the same. Wait, let me touch it with another hand."

While talking, Zhu Xuan moved the other mechanical arm, slowly approached the object he had already grasped, and began to test the shape of the object with one finger.

This is an extremely counter-intuitive behavior that is completely different from the touch operation of normal people. What he is doing is to use the pressure sensor on a finger to outline the objects on his hand.

After circling the object with his fingers, Zhu Xuan basically had a judgment in his mind.

"I know what it is."

"Cylindrical, about ten centimeters long, can't tell whether it's soft or hard, but it's slightly curved. First of all, exclude the strange thing I first thought of, and there's only one answer."

"banana."

"No, Brother Chen, are you really planning to let me eat bananas?!"

Chen Li nodded to him in relief, and then said:
"If you eat bananas, you must eat bananas, but it's not just as simple as eating."

"Come on, now try to peel off the banana peel and put it in your mouth by yourself."

"...This is a bit too much Brother Chen, the movements are too delicate, it's difficult."

"No matter how fine it is, can we expect that future users will not have fine movements in their lives? Peeling bananas is already very routine, and even this can't be done well. How can our brains and computers expect to change people's lives?"

"Stop talking, open your mouth!"

(End of this chapter)