A team of researchers in the Moscow region have come up with a 21st-century robot that makes remote-control technology look positively ancient because their machine is controlled by the power of thought.

It’s tiny and temperamental but this small machine could hold the key to changing the lives of thousands of people.

The President of the Neurobotics company, Vladimir Konishov, says Russian scientists working on the project are well on the way to something revolutionary.  

“First of all, it is for gamers, you can control some virtual reality objects and even some emotional states. Secondly, it has a clinical application. For example, for people who’ve lost the ability to move their body after a stroke,” Konishov said.

Using a special headset, the robot attempts to read electrical charges from the user’s brain and translate them into movement. This could then be used to direct a wheelchair or even a car.

“A human brain is divided into zones responsible for certain functions. These zones send impulses to the scalp. We need to register these impulses,” said Aleksey, a robot researcher.