Biological neural systems are powerful, robust and highly adaptive computational entities that outperform conventional computers in almost all aspects of sensory-motor integration. Despite dramatic progress in information technology, there is a big performance discrepancy between artificial computational systems and brains in seemingly simple orientation and navigation tasks. In fact, no system exists that can faithfully reproduce the rich behavioural repertoire of the tiny worm Caenorhabditis elegans which features one of the simplest nervous systems in nature made of 302 neurons and about 8000 connections. The Si elegans project aims at providing this missing link. This article is sketching out the main platform components.