Beyond the Signal: KNI Launches Neuro-Robotics Lab with Embedded Ethical Governance

The Kingsman National Institute (KNI) today announces the launch of a major new interdisciplinary research centre: the Neuro-Robotics & Cognitive Engineering Laboratory (NaRCEL). This initiative is not simply a new engineering project. It is a purpose-built, cross-faculty unit designed to confront one of the 21st century’s most profound technological and philosophical frontiers: the direct interface between the human brain and intelligent machines.

The laboratory’s primary mission is to develop advanced, non-invasive assistive technologies. The initial focus will be on “restorative robotics”—creating sophisticated, AI-driven prosthetic limbs and exoskeletons that can be controlled by the user’s neural signals, with a goal of restoring mobility and agency to individuals affected by stroke or severe motor neurone conditions.

This initiative is a quintessential expression of the KNI “Athenian Synthesis.” We believe it is insufficient—and potentially dangerous—to develop technology of this magnitude in an ethical vacuum. Therefore, NaRCEL is a mandatory collaboration, forcing our leading engineers, computational scientists, and philosophers into a single, integrated team.

The lab is co-directed by three principal investigators, each representing a critical pillar of the project:

1. The Engineering: Dr. Benoît Leclerc from our Hellenic Centre for Sustainable Engineering (HCSE) will lead the design of the physical hardware. His team, drawing on their expertise in applied physics and mechatronics, is tasked with building next-generation robotic limbs that are not only precise, but also lightweight, durable, and capable of providing haptic (sensory) feedback to the user.
2. The Computational Science: Dr. Matic Novak of the Aegean Informatics Laboratory (AIL) will lead the AI and data science component. The primary challenge is not the hardware, but the signal. Using non-invasive EEG (electroencephalography) caps, Dr. Novak’s team must develop advanced machine learning models capable of isolating the “noise” of the brain’s billions of neurons to find the “signal” of clear, conscious intent—a task of immense computational complexity.
3. The Ethical Governance: Dr. Sofia Costa from our Centre for Digital Ethics & Governance (CDEG) and PPL faculty is the third co-director. In a move that defines the KNI approach, Dr. Costa and her team of legal scholars and ethicists are not an external review board. They are embedded in the lab as equal partners from the first day, with their work recognized as being as critical as the engineering itself.

The immediate friction within the lab, which we view as a productive and necessary feature, is already clear. The central debate is not if the technology can work, but how it should work.

The engineering and AI teams are focused on “optimization” and “smoothness.” An early model, for instance, might be 80% accurate at reading a user’s intent to “grip.” The AI can easily “autocorrect” that 80% signal to 100%, executing a perfect, smooth grip every time. For the engineers, this is a success.

For Dr. Costa’s team, this is a profound ethical crisis.

“The moment the algorithm ‘corrects’ the user’s intent without their explicit, real-time consent, it ceases to be the user’s command. It is the algorithm’s command,” Dr. Costa explained. “The system is no longer assistive; it is agential. It has co-opted the user’s will. We are in a necessary, and admittedly imperfect, debate about the very definition of human agency. Is a slightly flawed, jerky movement that is 100% the user’s own will ethically superior to a perfect movement that is 20% algorithm? Our engineers and philosophers are grappling with this question before the technology is built, not after it has caused harm.”

This integrated process ensures that every line of code written and every circuit designed is immediately subject to rigorous ethical scrutiny. The lab’s work will directly inform KNI’s teaching, leading to the development of new cross-disciplinary modules for our undergraduate BSc in Computational Science and BA in PPL, ensuring the next generation of leaders understands this complex intersection.

The NaRCEL initiative at Kingsman National Institute is not a race to be the first to build a brain-computer interface. It is a deliberate, methodical, and self-reflective effort to be the first to build one right.