Bionics in competition

Cybathlon, a new competition designed to promote innovative assistive devices, may accomplish two goals, providing a competitive forum for disabled athletes, and highlighting the specific advances that are being made in robotic assistive aids designed to help those with significant physical disabilities. Conceived and developed by Switzerland's ETH Zurich and National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Robotics professor Robert Riener, the first iteration of Cybathlon took place in 2016 October in Zurich. While each team can compete in any of the disciplines, which include the brain-computer interface race; the functional electrical stimulation bicycle race; the powered-arm prosthesis race; the powered-leg prosthesis race; the powered-exoskeleton race, and the powered-wheelchair race, only one pilot can participate per team per discipline. The disciplines are designed to showcase the technology that can be used to improve the lives of those living with a disability, by creating specific challenges that mimic the obstacles that are faced by such people every day. The structure of Cybathlon is also unique in that both the pilots who control the devices and the technology itself are of equal importance. The significant amount of attention paid to Cybathlon helped raise awareness of the research being done in universities and among for-profit companies.