ANN ARBOR—Engineering researchers at four U.S. universities are embarking on a four-year project to design a prosthetic arm that amputees can control directly with their brains and that will allow them to feel what they touch.The research at the University of Michigan, Rice University, Drexel University and the University of Maryland is made possible by a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Human-Centered Computing program.The team plans to incorporate technology that feeds both tactile information from prosthetic fingertips and grasping-force information from a prosthetic hand to the brain through a robotic exoskeleton and touchpads that vibrate, stretch and squeeze the skin where the prosthesis attaches to the body. Their process is non-invasive. In experiments, subjects wear a cap to test the technology. Down the road, patients would discreetly affix a neural decoder to the scalp like a pair of glasses, envisions Brent Gillespie, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan.”What we’re doing is in some ways rather low-tech, but it’s expected to have a high pay-off because we are integrating control and sensory feedback. We aim to close control loops,” Gillespie said. “Other research groups are working on drawing signals more directly from the nerves of the brain, but they are finding that this approach is fraught with technical hurdles. What we’re doing is a lot closer to being realized and commercialized.” Gillespie’s co-investigators on the project are Marcia O’Malley at Rice, Patricia Shewokis at Drexel, and Jos