Paralympics Adds Competition for Bionic-Assisted Athletes

Illustration of powered exoskeleton race (Image courtesy of Cybathlon)

Disabled persons have been able to compete in the Paralympics for years, but technology is about to take Olympic competitions for disabled persons to a whole new level – welcome to the Cybathlon.

The Cybathlon is the first ever competition to be featured in the Olympics that incorporates performance-enhancing technology for the disabled. The competition will debut at the 2016 Olympics at Hallenstadion Zurich in Zurich and was developed as a way to entice prosthetic developers to bring their “A” game to the design table.

Contenders will compete across six disciplines: the powered arm prostheses race; functional electrical simulation bike race; powered leg prostheses race; powered exoskeleton race; powered wheelchair race and brain computer interface race. Medals will be awarded to both contenders, called pilots, and the companies which developed the technologies.

Probably the most interesting of the races will be the brain computer interface race. This race takes competitors paralyzed from the neck-down and places them in a computer game, where they control an avatar using only their mind. The brainwave-powered event will be hosted by the Swiss National Competence Centre of Research and is sure to cause a stir.

Illustration of brain computer interface race (Image courtesy of Daily Mail Online)

The other events will feature prosthetic limbs and hardware that are both already commercially available and pilots. The events in the Cybathlon certainly won’t include a last-man-standing triathlon, but it will include tasks with which paraplegics may struggle, again to enhance the development of practical, full-capacity prosthetic technology.

Touch Bionics’ commercially available prosthetic hand iLimb (Image courtesy of Daily Mail Online)

The powered leg prostheses race, for example, will require contenders to complete a race course with obstacles such as walking across a seesaw, over cobblestones, up a staircase and over a slope. The powered arm prostheses race will instead require competitors to successfully complete two hand-arm coordination assignments.

The new type of Olympic game will hopefully enhance the development of prosthetic technology to help amputees lead a more normal everyday life.

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