Papers
11
Total Citations
525
H-Index
9
About
Brock A. Wester is a pioneering biomedical engineer whose research sits at the intersection of brain-machine interfaces (BMIs), neural engineering, and assistive robotics. Working primarily at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Wester has dedicated his career to restoring functional independence to individuals living with paralysis and limb loss through innovative human-machine integration. Wester's most influential contribution is the development of the HARMONIE system — a hybrid, multimodal control framework that combines intracranial EEG, eye tracking, and computer vision to enable semi-autonomous control of advanced robotic prosthetics like the Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL). This landmark work, cited over 190 times, fundamentally advanced the field by demonstrating that collaborative intelligence between user intent and machine autonomy could dramatically improve prosthetic dexterity. His subsequent research achieved simultaneous neural decoding of reaching and grasping (90 citations) and extended these capabilities to bimanual self-feeding tasks and bilateral hand gesture classification. Spanning over a decade of published work, Wester has also explored flight simulation via BCI, osseointegrated prosthetic arms used at home, advanced Bayesian movement decoding, and most recently, artificial touch feedback through cortical microstimulation. His cumulative body of work reflects a sustained commitment to translating neuroscience into life-changing assistive technologies for people with sensorimotor deficits.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 5Flight simulation using a Brain-Computer Interface: A pilot, pilot study36 citations · 2016
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- 8HARMONIE: A multimodal control framework for human assistive robotics25 citations · 2013
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