Programme

CYBATHLON Challenges on 2 February 2024

Programme CYBATHLON Challenges in February 2024

The CYBATHLON Challenges offer development teams the opportunity to involve people with disabilities in their development process from the very beginning and to test their assistance systems in a competitive situation. The Challenges is of course the build-up on the Road to 2024, the CYBATHLON global edition, which is to take place in October 2024.

The Streams of the CYBATHLON Challenges were hosted and commented on by Patrick Winterton and co-commentated on by Heads of Disciplines.

The event schedule includes various heats throughout the day. The streaming of the event starts at 11:00 CET with the ARM Prosthesis Race (Heat 1) and concludes with the Assistance Robot Race (Heat 2) at 18:30 CET.

Programme

Thursday, February 1

11:05 CET

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ARM Prosthesis Race – Heat 1

Teams

Bionicohand (Rennes, France) – Zurich Hub

SIBET (Suzhou, China) – Local Hub

11:25 CET

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Wheelchair Race – Heat 1

Teams

OECU (Osaka, Japan) – Local Hub

Robility enhanced (Rapperswil, Switzerland) – Zurich Hub

11:45 CET

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ARM Prosthesis Race – Heat 2

Teams

Bionicohand (Rennes, France) – Zurich Hub

SIBET (Suzhou, China) – Local Hub

12:00 CET

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Wheelchair Race – Heat 2

Teams

OECU (Osaka, Japan) – Local Hub

Robility enhanced (Rapperswil, Switzerland) – Zurich Hub

12:15 CET

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FES Bike Race – Heat 1

Teams

PULSE Racing (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) – Local Hub

HunFess (Budapest, Hungary) – Local Hub

12:45 CET

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Vision Assistance Race – Heat 1

Teams

NextVPU (Shanghai, China) – Local Hub

EyeRider (Budapest, Hungary) – Zurich Hub

A-Eye (Zurich, Switzerland) – Zurich Hub

13:00 CET

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Vision Assistance Race – Heat 2

Teams

NextVPU (Shanghai, China) – Local Hub

EyeRider (Budapest, Hungary) – Zurich Hub

A-Eye (Zurich, Switzerland) – Zurich Hub

16:00 CET

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ARM Prosthesis Race – Heat 3

Teams

SmartArm ARM (Paris, France) – Zurich Hub

BionIT Labs (Soleto, Italy) – Local Hub

16:15 CET

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Brain-Computer Interface Race – Heat 1

Teams

Ebrainers (Budapest, Hungary) – Local Hub

Whi (Padova, Italy) – Local Hub

NeuroCONCISE (Bath, UK) – Local Hub

16:45 CET

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Assistance Robot Race – Heat 1

Teams

BFH-FAIR (Bern, Switzerland) – Zurich Hub

RSL (Zurich, Switzerland) – Zurich Hub

17:15 CET

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FES Bike Race – Heat 2

Teams

POLIMI (Milano, Italy) – Local Hub

EMA (Brasilia, Brazil) – Local Hub

17:45 CET

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ARM Prosthesis Race – Heat 4

Teams

SmartArm ARM (Paris, France) – Zurich Hub

BionIT Labs (Soleto, Italy) – Local Hub

18:00 CET

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Brain-Computer Interface Race – Heat 2

Teams

Ebrainers (Budapest, Hungary) – Local Hub

Whi (Padova, Italy) – Local Hub

NeuroCONCISE (Bath, UK) – Local Hub

18:15 CET

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Assistance Robot Race – Heat 2

Teams

BFH-FAIR (Bern, Switzerland) – Zurich Hub

RSL (Zurich, Switzerland) – Zurich Hub

Host and Commentators

Patrick Winterton

A little bit about me. I have had a very varied, if unusual, career. Serving in the Royal Marines, Olympic cross-country skier, Physiotherapist, and for the last three decades a sports commentator with Eurosport and the BBC.

My passion away from work is adventure. For me it is not about the pursuit of records but the satisfaction that comes from applying both mind and body to do things that haven’t been done before. There is no guidebook and ninety per cent of the project, all the important planning, learning, and experimenting phases, is completed before the challenge begins.

Occasionally I get to combine both work and play and undoubtedly the most rewarding times I’ve had have been guiding visually impaired athletes on the racetrack or across oceans. To get an opportunity to work with the CYBATHLON family is irresistible and as we would say in the UK “Right up my street”.

I look forward to meeting everyone and hope I can do such a prestigious event justice.

Laura Mayrhuber (Wheelchair Races)

Laura was born in Vienna, Austria, and received her BSc degree in Physiotherapy from the IMC FH Krems. In 2021, she completed an MSc in Sport Sciences from the University of Groningen, Netherlands, focusing on the biomechanical analysis of the upper extremities in wheelchair users. After finishing her master's studies, she continued her academic career as a project researcher at Swiss Paraplegic Research. Her work focused on activity classification in wheelchair users based on wearable sensor data, a project led by the Shoulder Health and Mobility Group. Laura began her PhD studies at the Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory in September 2022. Her long-term research goal is to combine therapeutic methods and technology to provide a sensor-based assessment of upper limb compensatory strategies in stroke survivors following discharge.

Adrian Esser (Arm Prosthesis Race)

Adrian Esser was born in Toronto, Canada. He received his Bachelor's Degree in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto in 2017 where he specialized in aerospace engineering. His Bachelor's Thesis was with Prof. Angela Schoellig of the Dynamic Systems Lab where he developed control systems for the autonomous navigation and surveying of nuclear reactors with quadcopters.

Adrian moved to Zürich in 2017 to pursue a Master's in Robotics, Systems, and Control at ETH. For his Master's Thesis, he worked with the SMS lab developing a controller for an exoskeleton such that the motion of the upper arm would be coordinated with the shoulder joint in a physiologically meaningful way. Adrian graduated from ETH in August of 2020.

In April of 2021, he joined the SMS lab as a PhD student. Adrian's research focuses on upper extremity biomechanics and textile-based assistive robotic devices.

When not working Adrian can almost certainly be found either tinkering with something or outdoors. He enjoys fixing things, gardening, cycling, rock climbing, and trail running.

Ingrid Odermatt (Brain-Computer Interface)

Ingrid received her bachelor’s and master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Bern, Switzerland. She carried out her master’s thesis in the Motor Learning and Neurorehabilitation Lab at the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research in Bern where she investigated effects of embodiment on motor learning in immersive virtual reality.

In 2020, she joined the Neural Control of Movement Lab at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, as a Neuroscience PhD student. In her current research, Ingrid uses functional MRI and non-invasive brain stimulation methods to study the brain's ability to modulate the motor system by imagined movements in a brain computer interface (BCI). This project intends to provide the basis for a neurorehabilitation intervention that does not rely on overt movements and aims to improve fine motor functions, for example after a stroke or spinal cord injury.

Felix Erb (Assistance Robot Race)

Felix Erb is a Ph.D. candidate at the BIORMED-Lab of the University of Basel. His research revolves around developing an intra-operative robot for intravertebral stiffness measurement of patients with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. His PhD Project is in close collaboration with the University Children's Hospital of Basel and the Computational Bioengineering Group at the University of Berne.

Within the Cybathlon, Felix Erb is the Head of the Discipline of the Assistance Robot Race, ROB.

Giulia Amos (Vision Assistance Race)

Giulia obtained her Master's degree in Health Sciences and Technology from ETH Zurich in 2022, with a specialization in medical technology applications. Following a clinical research internship at the University of Benin City Teaching Hospital, where she assisted with clinical services in the neurosurgery and emergency departments, she joined the Laboratory of Biosensors and Bioelectronics for her Master’s thesis. Her thesis focused on optimising and analysing signal transmission in directional neural networks for neuroscience. In June 2023, she began her doctoral studies at the LBB, driven by a strong interest in bottom-up neuroscience and intelligent systems.

Yong Kuk Kim (FES Bike Race)

Yong Kuk Kim completed his BEng and MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering degrees from University College London in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Following his master's degree, Yong commenced his doctoral studies at ETH Zurich in 2020 under the guidance of Dr Navrag Singh and Prof. Bill Taylor at the Laboratory for Movement Biomechanics. His research primarily focuses on developing portable health monitoring systems utilising sparse IMU-based wearable devices. Additionally, he is investigating enhancing motor functionality by applying auditory stochastic resonance. His work contributes to advancing healthcare technology, particularly in non-invasive and user-friendly medical devices.