This year, ISIR will be taking part in the Cybathlon with three teams: “A-eye”, “Smart ArM”, and “Smart ArM ROB”. During the competition, these teams will be demonstrating their technological advances and the skills of their drivers in specific everyday tasks. This Friday, 2nd February, two of the teams are taking part in the Cybathlon Challenge. This shorter format than the global Cybathlon competition will enable them to test themselves in real-life conditions before the 2024 edition to be held next October.
For the third time, the Cybathlon at ETH Zurich is organizing the Cybathlon Challenge, a competition for people with disabilities derived from the Cybathlon events. The “A-eye” and “Smart ArM” teams from ISIR will be presenting their technology and the skills of their pilots in four selected tasks in their discipline. The challenges will take place on Friday 2nd February in Zurich, Switzerland, and at the teams’ bases.
At the 2024 edition of the Cybathlon, ISIR teams will take part in two new disciplines introduced to the competition: a race using intelligent visual assistance technologies, and a race using assistance robots.
The “A-eye” team: using kinaesthetic feedback to guide the visually impaired
The “A-eye” team is taking part in the Cybathlon 2024 with an innovative project born of collaboration between a dozen groups of Sorbonne University students and research carried out at ISIR by Ludovic Saint-Bauzel and Fabien Vérité. Their solution is based on sensory substitution/augmentation via kinaesthetic feedback, offering an innovative approach to guiding the visually impaired. Team leader Sébastien Hinderer is a senior software engineer who has been blind since birth. At the heart of the team, he is taking part in a co-design approach to describe the device’s functions, as well as in the technological choices envisaged to refine the system’s performance. This system, in the form of a harness fitted with a kinesthetic feedback device, aims to interpret the pilot’s environment and reproduce interaction with a guide. This initiative, at the crossroads of innovation and inclusion, illustrates the transformative potential of university research to improve the lives of visually impaired people.
More about the “A-eye” team
The “SmartArM” team: a prosthesis to restore mobility to transhumeral amputees
The “Smart ArM” team specializes in the development of advanced arm prostheses for transhumeral amputees. Founded by Nathanaël Jarrassé, this interdisciplinary team of scientists from ISIR, accompanied by doctors from Nancy’s Institute Regional of Rehabilitation, is led by pilot Christophe Huchet, coach professionnel and former French champion swimmer born with agenesis of the right arm including the elbow. Their innovative prosthesis, named SAM (Smart ArM), features control based on the decoding of human whole-body movement strategies, and offers two motorized degrees of freedom, including a unique exoskeletal elbow. Beyond technical performance, the team aims to raise awareness of the complexity of “above the elbow” amputations and promote non-invasive approaches. The SAM team, which has already taken part in the world edition of Cybathlon 2020, the Cybathlon 2022 and 2023 challenges, is one of the only teams in the ARM race to have a pilot with a missing forearm. The participation of “Smart ArM” in Cybathlon 2024 promises to be a meeting between cutting-edge engineering and the aspiration to restore fluidity of movement for amputees.
More about the “Smart ArM” team
The “SmartArM ROB” team: developing new methods for assistive robotics
SmartArM ROB, a branch of the SmartArM team, is preparing for the Cybathlon Challenge 2024 embodying innovation in assistive robotics. This ISIR-based team stands out for its commitment to developing new sensorimotor control methods for assistive robotics, including prostheses and exoskeletons. The pilot, Etienne Moullet, tetraplegic since adolescence, brings scientific expertise and a passion for sporting challenges, perfectly illustrating the spirit of Cybathlon. Using the SAM-W (Smart ArM for Wheelchair), an innovative device based on a commercial robotic arm and mounted on a power-assisted wheelchair, the team stands out for its advanced technology and a control strategy based on body movements. SmartArM ROB embodies the fusion of cutting-edge research and human determination, perfectly suited to this competition dedicated to the advancement of assistive robotics.
More about the “Smart ArM” team
Find out more about the Cybathlon Challenge 2024 program.
Follow the events live on Friday, 2nd February 2024.
Published on 1st February 2024.
