Cybathlon 2016: Cyborg Competitions

The Olympic Games are competitions among the most trained and most talented athletes on the planet. The Paralympic Games is the same, but for disabled athletes. To be able to compete, many Paralympians use assistive devices and prostheses, some of which have already become complex electromechanical devices.

The impact of technology on the Olympics is already extremely large. In addition to the 2012 debate about whether Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius gained an advantage due to his carbon-fiber prostheses , the debate about friction-reducing suits for swimmers and runners continues. Any sport that uses some kind of equipment (shooting, archery, cycling, etc.), is increasingly becoming a high-tech application because human capabilities inevitably lose to technology. Yes, and because it is easier to improve the technique than a person.

Paralympians are most dependent on sports high-tech. Prostheses have evolved into active systems that are able to recognize human intentions (through neural interfaces) and independently use servo drives to more effectively replace real limbs. But this is going beyond biology, so it makes sense to create a completely new type of competition.
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Cybathlon is a competition of paratlés using high-tech assistive devices, including robotics. These competitions are divided into disciplines depending on the technical improvements used: artificial legs, hands, exoskeletons, chairs, electrostimulated muscles, neural interfaces. Auxiliary devices can be both serial and experimental. In each discipline will be awarded two medals: the athlete and the manufacturer of the used auxiliary devices (analogue of the Cup of designers in Formula 1).

Disciplines :

Competition athletes with active prostheses of both hands. Purpose: to complete the task as soon as possible.


Race with the use of neurointerface. Purpose: victory in a computer racing simulator.


Bike race with the use of electrical muscle stimulation. In the race involved paralyzed athletes who are not able to manage their limbs. This function falls on the musculoskeletal system.


Race athletes with active prostheses of both legs.


Race athletes in exoskeleton. Athletes paralyzed from the waist or chest and below are allowed.


Wheelchair racing.


A lot of additional information can be found at http://www.cybathlon.ethz.ch/ .

At some point, and perhaps soon, Paralympians using robotic devices will first be able to compete on equal terms, and then surpass completely healthy athletes. Take, for example, the task with the wire loop. The rules at the moment do not say anything about the sensors. It is clear that the prosthesis can be configured so that the athlete will not be able to cope with the task. If you develop this idea, then a successful combination of sensors and servo drives will allow you to simply take the wire with one hand and go through the other stages of the competition, while the prosthesis will independently perform all the necessary actions.

Another question arises: how much should a real athlete be in an athlete and how much artificial? And if there is more artificial, then what should be considered a sport?