"Semi-robot" Olympic Games: There is no championship here, only technological victory

In 2012, a news story about charity operations shocked all walks of life – Zac Vawter, a disabled person who lost a leg on a motorcycle accident, climbed onto the Willis Building in Chicago in just forty-five minutes with a prosthetic leg with an engine. Floor. After seeing the news, Robert Riener, a biomedical engineer at the Federal Institute for Science and Technology in Zurich, Switzerland, began to reflect on whether the high-tech artificial limbs and other equipment developed in our laboratory can be used to attract people’s attention. What about the eye? - In this way, he began to outline everything about the Cybathlon Games.

In the beginning, he considered doing something cool, like climbing a mountain with a prosthetic arm. The equipment he designed was in the form of a hook. When people bent the muscles on the remaining limbs, the device controlled the movement through the connecting wire. It can well support people to make large-scale movements, but it cannot control muscle activity finely. But in 2013, an acquaintance who lost his arm and put on a prosthetic arm because of cancer told Riener that when he bought a movie ticket, he had to pull out his wallet and pull out the money. At that time, he could feel the person behind him. Impatient eyes. This made Riener suddenly realize that for people using prostheses, solving these difficulties in daily life is more practical than high-energy prosthetic design. Therefore, he decided to build Cybathlon in a completely different way from the Paralympics.

In this way, after four years of planning and preparation, in October 2016, the Cybathlon High-Tech Prosthetic Gymnastics Games will be held in Switzerland. The event is sponsored by the Swiss National Competition Research Centre. Its purpose is threefold: to promote the development of disabled systems and the exchange of science and technology, to raise the public awareness of assistive technologies for disabled people, and to help disabled athletes use technology to help complete the competition. As Robert Riener once said — “I think people have been spoiled by the Internet and Hollywood movies, and we want people to see that there are still difficulties and challenges in life.” Cybathlon is interested in helping people with disabilities to overcome the greatest difficulties.

At that time, there will be about 300 scientists, engineers, technical support staff and entrants (all persons with disabilities) to the race. Among them are small teams and Otto Bock, the world's largest prosthetic limb manufacturer. The contest is based on the Paralympic Games, which is based on six racing projects. They are bicycles, lower limbs, wheelchairs, exoskeletons, and arm prostheses, as well as human brain and computer interactions for athletes. Each contestant will choose one of six competitions to challenge his ability to handle chores in everyday life.  

Powered Wheelchair Race

The Powered Wheelchair Tournament is probably the most significant item in applied science and technology in the six competitions. Athletes want to drive power wheelchairs through obstacles such as cones and other roadblocks, which requires the wheelchair operator to master both forward and backward skills.

Power Arm Prosthetics

The surviving amputee of the forearm or upper arm will be equipped with a movable external prosthetic device (powered arm prosthetic arm) to complete the two competitions requiring hands and arms.

Power Leg Prosthetics

Athletes who are amputated above the knee will use the sports external prosthetic device (powered leg prosthesis) to compete.

Dynamic Exoskeleton Equipment Competition

Athletes with spine injuries are required to wear exoskeleton equipment for walking events.

Functional electric stimulation bike race

Some athletes with complete injuries to the spine cannot participate in the dynamic exoskeleton equipment race, so they can choose to participate in the FES (Functional Electrical Stimulation) bike race and compete on the circular track.

Brain Machine Interface (BCI) competition

Athletes will use the brain-computer interface to control the speed of the role in the computer, which means that they can only use their own brains to control the role.

There is no doubt that the brain-computer interface (BCI) competition is the strangest of the six projects - 15 athletes wearing equipment, four minutes straight on the field, showing the contents of their brains on the big screen. Each athlete will use a specific pattern of brain activity to try to guide a character on the screen through the obstacle. The character is converted from an electrode cap to three commands: accelerate, jump over the obstacle, or roll over the laser.

José del R. Millán, a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, believes that this electronic signal is weak and varies, so it may be difficult to distinguish between various commands, especially when an athlete cheers because of the game. When adrenaline is distracted, continuing to focus on the task is very energy consuming. Currently, his team is studying how to predict thinking patterns to make this connection more natural, while making the athletes more relaxed.

BCI may no longer be applied to real jumps and running because it is very simple to detect electronic activity in muscles. However, if the accuracy of the equipment is reduced under the premise of reducing the production cost of such equipment, they may help people with disabilities to guide wheelchairs, cursors, and even Skype-enabled robots to participate in the competition. "In fact, you can develop this technology in the experiment and then make it out, which means that this technology is promising." said Maran-Fernandez, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Exeter in the UK.

As an excellent platform for academic and industry exchanges, Cybathlon will witness the birth of more top robots to solve more practical problems for people with disabilities.


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