Races and Rules

Races and Rules CYBATHLON 2021 – 2024

• Information about the Races and Rules

  Two New Disciplines

  Since the inaugural event in 2016, CYBATHLON has challenged pilots and development teams alike pushing the boundaries of assistive technologyies. The new period sees the continuation of the original six competition disciplines and the addition of two new disciplines in the areas of assistant robots and vision assistance technologies.

  More Uncertainty and Variability

  While the competition tasks for CYBATHLON 2016 and 2020 were specified to a very high degree, tasks for CYBATHLON 2024 will be designed with task-specific uncertainty in most disciplines. Compared to previous competitions, this will require improved control, faster and advanced dynamics, increased functional flexibility of the assistive devices and more ad-hoc selection of the task solving strategy by the pilots as compared to previous competitions.

  The aim of adding variability to the competition tasks is to better account for daily life situations, where the exact circumstances of a given task are not always known, or constant over time and across different locations.

  Learning from Previous Competitions and Feedback

  The new and adapted competition tasks build on the performances of the teams in the previous CYBATHLON events and recent technical developments in the respective fields. Feedback from the teams, pilots, and other stakeholders on previous tasks is always considered when developing new tasks. At the same time, many of the basic principles of previous CYBATHLON competitions will continue to define the character and nature of upcoming events. Safety and fairness have the highest priority.

• Eligibility Criteria

  CYBATHLON Team

  A team must consist of a technology provider and a pilot. Further team officials are allowed. Each team must be managed by a team manager. A team can only participate in one discipline. Only one pilot can participate per team per discipline. In order to compete in several disciplines, the same institution can register more than one team.

  Pilot Eligibility Criteria

  Pilots must must be at least 18 years, have sufficient cognitive and communicative abilities to understand the Races and Rules, meet the discipline-specific pilot eligibility criteria, and pass all steps of the MedCheck. If an assistive device is implanted in the pilot’s body the implants must be medically stable for at least six months and free of complications prior to and at the time of the competition. If the implanted assistive device or parts thereof are research prototypes, the team must have an approval of the responsible regulatory body governing the institution of the participating team.

  Technology Eligibility Criteria

  It is allowed to use a commercial device, a modified version of a commercial device, prototypes or research devices. Assistive devices or components thereof that are implanted in the pilot’s body (e.g. electrodes, sensors, osseointegration) are eligible to participate. In any case, the assistive device must be safe for the pilot and their environment at any time, and pass all steps of the TecCheck. After all requirements of the TecCheck have been met, no further changes may be made to the device that would alter the function or the safety of the device. In addition to the predefined review during the TecCheck, additional reviews of a team's assistive device can be carried out by the technical examiners at any time during the competition.