N. 899822
Funding programme/Agency: Horizon 2020
Acronym: SOMA
Institution: Imperial College London
Project type: RIA – Research and Innovation action
Implementation period: 01.09.2020 – 28.02.2025
Budget: €2,999,998.75
Project website:
PROJECT SUMMARY:
The SOMA project aims to significantly advance bidirectional interfaces with the peripheral nervous system through four high-risk objectives. It seeks to restore somatic sensations using a novel, less invasive stimulation technique that maintains selectivity and spatial resolution, and to enhance motor command decoding via a miniaturized ultra-fast ultrasound (US) system paired with advanced algorithms. The project also explores the delivery of multiple somatic sensations through focused US and investigates the underlying spatio-temporal neural mechanisms using an in-vitro somatosensory model. Ultimately, SOMA aims to demonstrate that this US-based bidirectional interface enables natural sensory feedback and effective myoelectric control of prosthetics. Imperial College leads the research on ultrasound-driven motor intention decoding, developing human-machine interfaces for improved control in medical, industrial, and entertainment applications.
Project Coordinator:
Name and surname: Dario Farina
Email: d.farina@imperial.ac.uk
Personal Profile: Profile – Dario Farina