By: Vanessa Bleich
Next year’s Cybathlon will host people with physical disabilities equipped with advanced assistive devices including robotic technologies. The goal of this unique competition is to remove barriers between people with physical disabilities, researchers and the general public and to promote the development of assistive technologies that are useful for daily life. We talked to Robert Riener, the Cybathlon’s main organizer and Professor of Sensory-Motor Systems at ETH.

Robert Riener is the initiator and organizer of the Cybathlon. (Photo: ETH Zurich / Giulia Marthaler)

You are the initiator and main organizer of the Cybathlon. How did the idea for this event come about?
As a researcher, I’m always on the lookout for opportunities to present my research to the general public. A few years ago, I read an article in the newspaper about a man who climbed the stairs at the Willis Tower in Chicago using a motorised prosthetic leg. It inspired me to think about a similar event that could be held here in Switzerland – an event that would extend beyond a single race to include many other disciplines. Through talks with colleagues and employees, I gradually developed the idea further. I also thought increasingly about what exactly we wanted to communicate and achieve with this event.

What do you hope to achieve through the Cybathlon?
Our original idea, which was to present our research findings to a wider public, of course remains a goal that we continue to pursue. But we would also like to raise people’s awareness of the needs of people with physical disabilities and the obstacles they face in everyday life. Unfortunately, many people without disabilities know very little about the challenges faced today by people with physical disabilities. Alongside technical assistance, for example, accessibility is also extremely important. We believe this knowledge, in turn, can break down more barriers.

Besides overcoming reservations about the field, we want to motivate developers to create technologies that provide real support to people in daily life. That is why the races feature everyday obstacles, such as stairs, ramps and doors. We hope Cybathlon’s competitive nature will boost the development of powered assistive technology in the long term. It’s already having a positive impact: new student groups have been formed and research projects have emerged. Both students and researchers are working at full speed on their prototypes.

What are the main difficulties when developing electrically powered devices?
The weight-performance relationship is one of the greatest challenges. For example, if you want to build a wheelchair that climbs stairs, it must be wider for stability reasons. When combined with the additional mechanics and propulsion system, it’s automatically heavier. The same goes for the development of the exoskeleton. The integrated batteries must be very efficient to allow the wearer to move freely and independently throughout the day, but these batteries weigh a lot.

Cybathlon

The Cybathlon will take place on 8 October 2016 at the Swiss Arena in Kloten. People with varying degrees of disability, aided by cutting-edge assistive technology, will participate in the unique competition. A team is comprised by a technology provider and at least one pilot who directs the technological device. As a result, two medals await each winning team at the Cybathlon: one for the parathletes and another for the provider. The technological device that is deployed can either be a product that is already available on the market or a prototype from a research lab.

The competition features six different disciplines:

• Powered leg prosthesis race
• Powered arm prosthesis skills course
• Powered exoskeleton obstacle course
• Powered wheelchair race
• Functional electrical stimulation bike race
• Brain-computer interface virtual race

Robert Riener, head of ETH Zurich’s Sensory-Motor Systems Lab, is the initiator and main organizer of the Cybathlon.

Are there other challenges besides the power supply?
While the performance data for the powered leg prosthesis is already very good, the control is more problematic. The wearer’s intended movements must be correctly conveyed to the leg prosthesis. This means that the prosthesis should automatically detect what the person wants to do, be it standing up, sitting down or climbing stairs. This is less of a problem when it comes to conventional, passive prostheses because the wearer intuitively propels them by moving or swaying.

What is the current state of research in the area of powered assistive technology?
The technology is already quite advanced today in some areas. For example, it is now possible to run quicker with certain leg prostheses than a human with natural legs could. But such prostheses are only helpful for specific movements. You may be able to walk quickly, but not be able to sit down, walk up stairs, or drive a car. Most of the available aids have significant deficits with regards to everyday functions and potential users have therefore failed to embrace them. This is where the idea behind the Cybathlon comes in: systems need to be developed that provide help to people with disabilities where they need it the most – in daily life.

How does the Cybathlon differ from other competitions such as the Paralympics?
People with disabilities can participate and compete in both events. The Paralympics, however, is primarily a sporting competition. Technology remains in the background and the use of motorised wheelchairs or powered prostheses is not permitted. As a result, many people are unable to compete. At the Cybathlon, on the other hand, «pilots» with greater restrictions who primarily direct the technical aids – are also eligible to participate. Although people are at the centre of our event, technology also plays a relatively large role.

The Paralympics are focused on sporting disciplines. In addition to races honouring the athlete who reaches the finish line first, the Cybathlon competition also includes skills and obstacle courses featuring everyday tasks and barriers. It’s not only the time that counts; pilots also receives points for their skills. Just like in classic sporting events, competition drives both the pilots and the technology developers at the Cybathlon. They inspire each other to deliver their best performance.

What has the response been to the planned event up until now?
There’s been a great deal of interest in the event. We have received very positive feedback from the scientific community, the media and well-known Swiss organisations for the disabled. The disability associations share our view that the Cybathlon could contribute to the development of current devices. Some critics, however, argue that these sorts of efforts should be focused exclusively on making buildings and the environment barrier-free. But the world does have barriers and you can’t just make them disappear – there are hills, forest paths and so forth. Researchers are developing technologies so they no longer pose obstacles in the future.

• Novel robots for gait and arm rehabilitation: Interview with Robert Riener
• Introducing the Cybathlon
• Registration now open for Cybathlon 2016

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ARMin neuro-rehabilitation device.

In this pair of video lectures, Robert Riener presents his team’s research efforts in the field of rehabilitation robotics, and describes the vision behind Cybathlon, the competition for robot-assisted parathletes.

Novel robots for gait and arm rehabilitation

Patients who have limited use of their arms or legs due to stroke or spinal chord injury require intensive therapy to help them rehabilitate. This rehabilitation process is long, exhausting and expensive, and requires intensive therapy with specialists. With robotic technology, many of these challenges can be overcome.

Systems such as the Robot-Aided Gait Training enable patients to start intensive therapy right away, and for longer hours. The ARMin neuro-rehabilitation device helps stroke patients regain physical capabilities; research results show that patients subjected to ARMin training heal faster than patients working with therapists alone.

These devices involve intense human-robot cooperation and therefore have been developed according to human-robot interaction best practices. Future research will be focused on improving the effectiveness of robotic rehabilitation devices and their overall use in the medical field.

You can download the .pdf presentation here: Novel Robots for Gait and Arm Rehabilitation.

Riener R. IJARS Video Series: Novel Robots for Gait and Arm Rehabilitation [online video]. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2014, 11:V2. DOI: 10.5772/59833

Cybathlon 2016, The Championship for Robot-Assisted Parathletes

Research labs around the world have been focused on developing novel assistive technologies such as wheelchairs, exoskeletal and mechatronic devices to help patients with spinal chord injuries in their daily life activities. There is still a long way to go before these kinds of devices will enable complete movement for these patients.

That is why Dr. Robert Riener and his team of collaborators are organising a special kind of event – Cybathlon 2016 – similar to the paralympic games. During Cybathlon, participants will compete in six disciplines while using wheelchairs, exoskeletons, brain and muscle stimulation devices, and other technologies.

The goal for researchers is to learn the strengths and the weaknesses of these devices and ultimately make them more effective for patients. The project also aims to promote wider use of robotic technology solutions in the fields of medical treatment where extensive physical therapy and assistance is required.

Riener R. IJARS Video Series: Cybathlon 2016, The Championship for Robot-Assisted Parathletes [online video]. International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2014, 11:V3. DOI: 10.5772/59837

Robert Riener is Full Professor for Sensory-Motor Systems at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich. He has been Assistant Professor for Rehabilitation Engineering at ETH Zurich since May 2003. In June 2006 he was promoted to the rank of an Associate Professor and in June 2010 to the rank of a Full Professor. As he holds a Double-Professorship with the University of Zurich, he is also active in the Spinal Cord Injury Center of the Balgrist University Hospital (Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich).

His current research interests involve human motion synthesis, biomechanics, virtual reality, man-machine interaction, and rehabilitation robotics. He has authored and co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles and 20 patents. He is a member of several scientific societies (e.g., IEEE/EMBS, DGBMT/VDE, IFESS) and an associate editor of several scientific journals. For his development of the arm therapy robot ARMin, he was awarded with several prizes including the humanTech Innovation Prize and the Swiss Technology Award. He was awarded also with the IEEE TNSRE Best Paper Award 2010 and the euRobotics Technology Transfer Awards 2011 and 2012.

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In this sixth part of the ShanghAI Lecture series, Rolf Pfeifer introduces the topic “Artificial Evolution” and gives examples of evolutionary processes in artificial intelligence. The first guest lecture, by Francesco Mondada (EPFL) is about the use of robots in daily life; in the second guest lecture, Robert Riener (ETH Zürich) talks about rehabilitation robots.

The ShanghAI Lectures are a videoconference-based lecture series on Embodied Intelligence run by Rolf Pfeifer and organized by me and partners around the world.

Francesco Mondada: Toward Robots For Daily Life

In a recent survey from the European Commission, 60% of the participants said that robots should be banned from the application area “care of children, elderly, and the disabled”, 34% would like to ban robots from “education”. Within this framework, what is the future of robotics in daily life services? Two research projects answering this question are presented in this talk: education using specific robotics tools and a new form of embodiment for service robotics. Some preliminary results are illustrated, showing a very interesting potential demonstrated by a high acceptance of the proposed approaches.

Robert Riener: Design Principles for Intelligent Rehabilitation Robots

Integrating the human into a robotic rehabilitation system can be challenging not only from a biomechanical view but also with regard to psycho-physiological aspects. Biomechanical integration involves ensuring that the system to be used is ergonomically acceptable and “user-cooperative”. Psycho-physiological integration involves recording and controlling the patient’s physiological reactions so that the patient receives appropriate stimuli and is challenged in a moderate but engaging way. In this talk basic design criteria are presented that should be taken into account, when developing and applying an intelligent robotic system that is in close interaction with the human subject. One must carefully take into account the constraints given by human biomechanical, physiological and psychological functions in order to optimize device function without causing undue stress or harm to the human user.

References:

• Robert Riener, Lars Lünenburger, Gery Colombo: Human-centered robotics applied to gait training and assessment, Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 43(5), August/September 2006, p. 679-694.
• Alexander Koenig, Ximena Omlin, Lukas Zimmerli, Mark Sapa, Carmen Krewer, Marc Bolliger, Friedemann Müller, Robert Riener:Psychological state estimation from physiological recordings during robot-assisted gait rehabilitation, Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development, 48(4), accepted for publication, 2011
• Robert Riener: What Has to Be Known about Human Physiology to Develop Wearable Robots? Workshop on Wearable Robotics, IEEE ICRA 2012, St. Paul, USA

Related links:

• Slides (9.7 MB)
• ShanghAI Lectures website
• Book: How the Body Shapes the Way We Think