Forget joysticks and exoskeletons, the future of warfare could see robot armies controlled using just a commander's mind.

China has been training students at a military academy to use headsets that detect and interpret the brain activity of the wearer, allowing them to control the machines.

At a demonstration at the People's Liberation Army Information Engineering University in Zhengzhou, students used the device to send robots trundling in different directions.

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Students at the People's Liberation Army Information Engineering University in Zhengzhou are being taught to control robots using only their thoughts. In the image above an instructor looks at a computer with a student, who is wearing a cap with electrodes embedded in it to detect the electrical activity of their brain

They were also able to turn the robot's heads and get them to pick up objects.

The technology uses a brain computer interface known as a electroencephalograph, which uses electrodes embedded in a cap to detect tiny changes in the electrical activity of the brain.

By training a computer to recognise particular patterns that accompany commands, such as turn left or turn right, this can be then transmitted to control the robot.

The technology is being developed at the military academy's laboratory for brain-machine coordination.

Students can turn the heads of the robots, control the direction they move in and get them to pick up objects using caps that detect the activity of their brain. Despite working at a military academy, researchers developing the technology say it will lead to home appliances that can be controlled by the mind

Among the other projects being developed at the laboratory are drones that can also be controlled using a brain headset.

While instructors at the laboratory insist the technology could be used to control all manner of equipment and home appliances, it has raised fears it could also be used for warfare.

Rather than having to put its soldiers into the battlefield, China could exploit the technology to send mind-controlled robots into action.

However, the technology is still fairly rudimentary and requires a great deal of concentration to get the robots to perform even the simplest of tasks.

According to China News, Tong Li, the lab instructor, said the equipment was also only 70 per cent accurate at the moment.

She explained it worked when the student wearing the equipment hears different instructions, their brain gives out different signals.

She said the signal is then amplified and then interpreted by a computer.

The university is also reputed to be a centre for research into online warfare.

Lab supervisor Yan Bing added: 'This topic is expected to be completed by the end of the year and we're on track to achieve that.

He said China is also due to launch a Brain Science Plan as a 'key scientific project relating to the future development of our country'.

Researchers elsewhere have been developing similar technology to help amputees control robotic prosthetic arms.