Indian-Origin Scientist To Lead Team Which Will Help US Troops Control Robots With Their Thoughts

Indian-origin scientist at Battelle will be leading a team that would be helping the US armed forces to conceptualise and implement the idea of controlling robots with one’s thoughts.

The US Defence department wants senior research scientist, Gaurav Sharma’s team to develop a system to control multiple unmanned aerial vehicles or a bomb disposal robot with the thoughts of a soldier, the Tribune India reports.

A statement by Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said: “A senior research scientist at Battelle, is among six teams to win grants to develop brain-machine interfaces.” Battelle successfully demonstrated its Brain-computer interface (BCI) projects for over four years.

The contract worth $20 million was recently awarded to Sharma’s team, where the first phase of the programme will be funded with $2 million. If the concept proves successful additional funding will be released for the second and third phase of the programme.

Sharma, 40, speaking about the project said: “This is one of the most exciting and challenging projects I have worked on.” He will have to develop a system that will put a helmet on a soldier and use his mind to control multiple robotic functions under Battelle’s BrainSTORMS programme.

The BrainSTORMS programme involves temporarily introducing a nano-transducer into the body via injection to a specific area of the brain and then to help complete a task through communication with a helmet-based transceiver.