A robot that can be controlled using thoughts has been created by researchers. The mind control robot responds to commands triggered by thinking, rather than electronic or voice commands.

The robot, designed by researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, can understand signals from a human connected to an ECG machine and respond to negative signals regarding its actions.

The MIT CSAIL researchers designed the robot, called Baxter, to sort objects into two categories, paint and wire, with instruction from a human's brain. It chose to place objects into the two boxes, but changed its mind when it received feedback from the connected human that it was doing something wrong.

Connected to the robot via an ECG machine, a negative thought from the human triggered an almost instantaneous reaction.