Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS
17.07.2025
Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS (FhP-AICOS) is proud to be a key partner in SmILE (Smart Implants for Life Enrichment) — a cutting-edge €20M European project, led by Fraunhofer IMTE, focused on transforming the prevention, monitoring, and personalised treatment of musculoskeletal non-communicable diseases (MSK-NCDs) in older adults.
FhP-AICOS brings together the expertise of its three core research groups — Connected Things, Intelligent Systems, and Human-Centred Design — to contribute to multiple pillars of this ambitious project. AICOS’ multidisciplinary contribution spans human-centred design, hardware engineering, and multimodal algorithm development.
Smart Hardware and Energy Efficiency
As part of the Hardware Design, Sensor, and System Integration activities, AICOS is developing technology tailored for highly constrained applications, such as in-body implants. This infrastructure is designed to wirelessly deliver both power and data to implanted devices using radio signals. For the tiny, ultra-compact transceivers inside the body, we are developing advanced miniaturised RF components through polymer-based microfabrication techniques.
The implanted system will feature battery-free energy harvesting and on-chip data processing, ensuring efficient and autonomous device operation. These developments are rigorously tested through advanced electromagnetic modelling and in-vitro simulations, guaranteeing safety and performance across a range of medical implant scenarios.
“We’re proud to collaborate with a top-notch consortium, developing a new chip for next-generation smart implants and designing AI-driven predictive models to enable timely and personalised interventions.”, underlines Duarte Folgado, AICOS’ Senior Researcher responsible for the project.
AI for Personalised Health Insights
In the Data Analytics and AI component of the project, AICOS is developing advanced AI models to generate actionable insights from implant and wearable data. Our focus is on:
> Multimodal data fusion from implanted and wearable devices, electronic health records, and patient-reported outcomes;
> Longitudinal modelling of patient data to support diagnosis, forecast disease progression, and inform personalised condition management;
> Ensuring Trustworthy AI through privacy-preserving techniques, uncertainty quantification, and explainability.
Human-Centred Design and User Involvement
FhP-AICOS leads the human-centred design process in Portugal, ensuring that the development of SmILE technology is informed by the real needs and experiences of its end users. We will work with patients, healthcare professionals, and citizens in user research and co-design activities. We also contribute to the Health Technology Assessment tasks, which will support the future implementation of the solution in real-world care environments.
According to Duarte Folgado, “We’re on a mission to transform the future of medical implants — not just through technological innovation, but by listening closely to those who will benefit from it most: patients and healthcare professionals. By working hand-in-hand with people living with musculoskeletal conditions and their clinicians, we aim to create technologies that truly make a difference.”
As part of its mission to advance musculoskeletal research, the SmILE project is launching multicentre studies across Europe to collect movement data from both healthy individuals and patients. This effort will lead to the creation of the European Musculoskeletal Database (EMD), a comprehensive, FAIR-compliant resource designed to support open and collaborative research.
With an ageing population and increasing demand for orthopaedic interventions, SmILE envisions a future where smart bone implants enable continuous, real-time health monitoring — seamlessly and non-invasively — helping older adults stay active, recover more quickly, and manage their health with greater autonomy.
For more information about the project, visit www.horizon-smile.eu or CORDIS.