Practical
A team of VUB engineers and physiotherapists is preparing for the CYBATHLON 2024 leg prosthesis race. This is a unique competition to promote research and development of assistive technologies for people with physical disabilities. It is organised every Olympic year. This third edition of the Cybathlon will take place from 25 to 27 October in Zurich, Switzerland.
The VUB research groups involved are the Robotics and Multibody Mechanics laboratory (R&MM) and the Human Physiology and Sports Physiotherapy (MFYS) research group. The team's participation in the CYBATHLON 2024 falls within the project AI-driven wearable robotics for healthcare of which R&MM is coordinator, but in which the Department of Electrical Engineering of the KULeuven and the Multibody and Mechatronic Systems Laboratory of the ULiège are also collaborating.
“The goal is to win”
"The goal is to draw attention to the work our students are doing on human-centred robot design and control, and if I may be optimistic, to win," laughs R&MM scientist Louis Flynn.
"The project stems from a previous project, CYBERLEGs++, in which we developed a hardware prototype" says robotics professor and project coordinator Tom Verstraten of R&MM.
"A functional prosthesis with robotics requires a very complex and dynamic system, which means we will also use AI and machine learning in control."
"Getting this operational outside a laboratory setting is quite a challenge. The ultimate test will follow in October at CYBATHLON itself," concludes Louis Flynn."
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