Technology to provide military and
other amputees with realistic robotic limbs – hands, arms and legs that not only move like the real thing but also can “feel” – took a leap forward with the creation of a multimillion-dollar Neurophotonics Research Center led
by Lyle School engineers.
Marc Christensen, electrical engineering chair in the Lyle School of Engineering, directs the new center, where two-way fiber-optic communication between prosthetic limbs and peripheral nerves is being developed. Volkan Otugen, mechanical engineering chair, is SMU site director for the center.
Applications for a successful link between living tissue and advanced digital technologies extend to a number of complex medical issues, Christensen says.
“Providing this kind of port to the nervous system will enable not only realistic prosthetic limbs but also can be applied to treat spinal cord injuries and an array of neurological disorders.”
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding the $5.6 million center with industry partners as part of its Centers in Integrated Photonics Engineering Research (CIPhER) project.
Two SMU undergraduate research assistants, five graduate students and two postdoctoral students are assisting in the research. “Involving students in broad, multidisciplinary projects like this helps them understand how their knowledge and their work in the lab connect to a bigger picture,” Otugen says.
“We view hands-on implementation as a critical piece of the education of our students,” Christensen says. “It deepens their understanding and provides them with real-world experience that can accelerate their learning and careers.”
The center brings SMU researchers together with colleagues from Vanderbilt University, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of North Texas. The center’s industrial partners include Lockheed Martin (Aculight), Plexon, Texas Instruments, National Instruments and MRRA.
“Team members have been developing the individual pieces of the solution over the past few years,” Christensen says, “but with this new federal funding we are able to push the technology forward into an integrated system that works at the cellular level.”