Non-Invasive Brain-Controlled Robots: A Conversation with José del R. Millán

Ethics in Action Podcast

In this fourth episode of the series, we are joined by José del R. Millán. Dr. Millán is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he runs the Clinical Neuroprosthetics and Brain Interaction Lab and holds the Linda Steen Norris & Lee Norris Endowed Chair in Neuroengineering in the Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also a professor in the Department of Neurology at Dell Medical School, co-director of the UT CARE Initiative and associate director of Texas Robotics. Dr. Millán has made several seminal contributions to the field of brain-machine interfaces (BMI), especially non invasive EEG-based BCIs. Many of his achievements revolve around the design of brain-controlled robots. While his work prioritizes the translation of BMI to people who live with motor and cognitive disabilities, he is also designing BMI technology to offer new interaction modalities for able-bodied people that augment their abilities. In this episode, we discuss various elements of Dr. Millán’s work, including neuroplasticity and brain signaling as a skill, noninvasive EEG-based mobile robots, VR-based neurorehabilitation, BCI-controlled wheelchairs and exoskeletons, telerobotic surgery, enhancing human driving capabilities with BCI technology, the importance of 'shared control' between human and machine, integrating AI and machine learning with brain-computer interfaces, and the evolution of non-invasive BCIs towards sleeker, more user-friendly designs.