The motor control lab houses two fMRI-compatible robotic arms, which allow the study of arm movement in the scanning environment. The device was orginially developed in the laboratory of Dr. Reza Shadmehr (Johns Hopkins University). The people responsible for the design and engineering of the robot were Mike Turner, Jamie Hartwell, Maneesh Dewan,
Jörn Diedrichsen, Jay Burns, and Reza Shadmehr. The current devices were fabricated by IDB Bangor, and 3 of these devices have been made for laboratories in Nottingham and Birmingham (UK).
A computer, situated in an adjacent room, controls the force on the handle of the robot by controlling
inputs of the servo valves. A small (2 cubic feet), extremely quiet (<60 db) air compressor provides the air pressure in the system.