MindCruise: The Brain-Controlled Wheelchair
Freedom of movement redefined for the physically challenged.
Created on 5th April 2025
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MindCruise: The Brain-Controlled Wheelchair
Freedom of movement redefined for the physically challenged.
The problem MindCruise: The Brain-Controlled Wheelchair solves
The MindCruise wheelchair is designed to empower individuals with severe physical disabilities (like those suffering from quadriplegia or advanced muscular dystrophy) by allowing them to control their movement using only their brain signals.
It eliminates the dependency on traditional joystick or voice-controlled systems, which are not feasible for users with impaired speech or hand mobility.
This innovation not only enhances independence but also increases safety and precision in navigation, offering a life-changing tool for people who previously had little to no control over their movement.
Challenges we ran into
One of the biggest challenges was obtaining clean EEG signals using the sensors . The brain is a noisy environment, and getting meaningful data from it required heavy filtering and signal conditioning.
Additionally, differentiating between intentional commands and random brain activity was another hurdle — which we solved by implementing threshold-based logic and machine learning algorithms to interpret EEG patterns more reliably.
Integrating the EEG module with the Arduino UNO and mapping the outputs to motor drivers also came with power supply and timing issues, which we resolved by using an isolated power module and fine-tuning the control algorithm.
Another challenge was user fatigue — holding mental concentration too long was draining. We addressed this by implementing short burst control logic, where a single thought can trigger a directional movement for a short, predefined interval.