Introduction. Development of a robotic arm that can be operated using an exoskeletal position sensing harness as well as a dry\r\nelectrode brain-computer interface headset. Design priorities comprise an intuitive and immersive user interface, fast and smooth\r\nmovement, portability, and cost minimization. Materials and Methods. A robotic arm prototype capable of moving along 6 degrees\r\nof freedom has been developed, along with an exoskeletal position sensing harness which was used to control it. Commercially\r\navailable dry electrode BCI headsets were evaluated. A particular headset model has been selected and is currently being integrated\r\ninto the hybrid system. Results and Discussion.The combined arm-harness system has been successfully tested and met its design\r\ntargets for speed, smoothmovement, and immersive control. Initial tests verify that an operator using the system can performpick\r\nand place tasks following a rather short learning curve. Further evaluation experiments are planned for the integrated BCI-harness\r\nhybrid setup. Conclusions. It is possible to design a portable robotic arm interface comparable in size, dexterity, speed, and fluidity\r\nto the human arm at relatively low cost. The combined system achieved its design goals for intuitive and immersive robotic control\r\nand is currently being further developed into a hybrid BCI system for comparative experiments.
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