CYBATHLON Challenges February 2024: Teams and Competition Hubs

The CYBATHLON Challenges 2024 mark the final leg of the journey towards CYBATHLON 2024, set to take place in October. There are 23 teams from 10 countries in 11 different hubs that will test their cutting-edge assistive technologies and their pilots’ skills across 7 challenging disciplines which include four tasks out of ten tasks presented in the Rules and Races CYBATHLON 2024. This competition underscores CYBATHLON’s mission to advance assistive technology for people with disabilities and foster greater inclusion in society. Join us in this inspiring and innovative journey of human-technology collaboration.

Only a few months to go for the third and final CYBATHLON Challenges on the Road to CYBATHLON 2024. On Friday, 2 February 2024, various teams will test their newly developed assistive technologies and their pilot’s skills in seven of eight disciplines listed for the Challenges 2024 in the Rules and Races CYBATHLON 2024. More importantly, this time, they will be testing their developed technologies against four different tasks when compared to previous Challenges. Twenty-three teams from ten countries around the world, together with their pilots, have registered for this year’s Challenges to compete in eleven hubs around the globe. Twelve teams will compete at the main hub in Zurich and the remaining eleven teams will begin their races from their local hubs in Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, Brazil, China, Korea, Ireland and Japan.

The Challenges are the build-up to CYBATHLON 2024 which will take place between 25 and 27 October 2024. Nick Fellows, who previously presided over the CYBATHLON 2020 Global Edition and Challenges in May 2022 and March 2023, will host and comment on the stream, which will feature the races of the competing teams. Each team will be given four tasks from the 2024 Races and Rules to do, and they will have two chances to do so in the quickest amount of time. The group that clocks in the fastest wins.

23 Teams at 11 Hubs from 10 Countries

The CYBATHLON Challenges in February will feature the participation of 23 teams hailing from 10 different countries, competing across 11 local hubs. The races include the Arm Prosthesis Race with 4 teams, the Functional Electrical Stimulation Bike Race with 5 teams, the Vision Assistance Race with 4 teams, the Assistance Robot Race with 3 teams, the Wheelchair Race with 3 teams, the Brain-computer Interface Race with 3 teams, and the Exoskeleton Race with 1 team.

Out of these 23, there are 4 new teams in the CYBATHLON competition. These newcomers are BionIT Labs from Italy (Arm Prosthesis Race), SmartARM ROB from France (Assistance Robot Race), NextGuide from Switzerland (Vision Assistance Race), and HunFess from Hungary (FES Bike Race). The remaining 19 teams have prior experience with CYBATHLON competitions, having participated in Challenges held in March 2023 or May 2022, or in previous CYBATHLON editions in 2016 or 2020.

Within the Arm Prosthesis Race, teams like BionIT Labs (Italy) and SIBET (China) will compete from their respective local hubs in Soleto and Suzhou. In addition, France's Bionicohand and SmartARM will start their races from the Zurich Hub.

For the FES Bike Race, the Swiss team BFH-CybaTrike may begin in Zurich, while other teams like POLIMI (Italy), HunFess (Hungary), Pulse Racing (Netherlands), and EMA (Brazil), will commence their races from Milano, Budapest, Amsterdam, and Brasilia, respectively.

In the Vision Assistance Race, the Zurich Hub will serve as the starting point for the three VIS teams: A-Eye from France, EyeRider from Hungary, and NextGuide from Switzerland. The Chinese team NextVPU, however, will start the races from Shanghai.

The Assistance Robot Race will see France's SmartARM ROB and Swiss teams RSL and BFH-FAIR begin their races in the Zurich hub.

In the Brain-computer Interface Race, Italy's Whi, Hungary's Ebrainers and the UK’s NeuroCONSICE will start their races in Padova, Budapest and Dublin, respectively.

The Wheelchair Race will feature the German team Autak and the Swiss team Robility enhanced, starting their race from the Zurich hub, while the Japanese team OECU will commence their race from Neyagawa in Osaka.

Finally, the Exoskeleton Race will have the Swiss team Varileg enhanced starting from the Zurich hub.

Collaboration at the Center

CYBATHLON’s primary goal is to promote the development of assistive technology for people with disabilities worldwide. The main component is an international competition in eight disciplines, in which teams of developers and researchers and people with physical disabilities (referred to as pilots) compete against each other and tackle everyday tasks with the help of the latest technology. The CYBATHLON organises two to three Challenges during the four years up until the next CYBATHLON Edition. The teams are given two or more tasks from the CYBATHLON Races and Rules, which the competition management has prepared at home to conduct the competition.

More information about the CYBATHLON Challenges at https://cybathlon.ethz.ch/en/events/challenges/Challenges-2024  

If you have any queries about CYBATHLON events or if you and your team would like to participate in the CYBATHLON 2024, contact us at [email protected]

Watch the CYBATHLON Challenges LIVE on Feb 2 at www.cybathlon.com.