Cybathlon 2024 Assistance Robot Race (ROB)

Project Introduction

As a follow-up on RoboSoft, we attended the Cybathlon Assistance Robot Race (ROB), which targets Managing daily life autonomously with an assistance robot.

People with severe motor impairments or missing limbs, both upper and lower limbs, have limited autonomy when interacting with their physical environment. Tasks such as shopping for groceries independently, personal hygiene, or clearing out the dishwasher are just a few examples of how these people might depend on a caring person. Assistance robots are a relatively new category of assistive devices that can support a person with limited motor control in daily life. They can take over some tasks that a caring person otherwise does. To become a fully accepted technology, these devices must be seamlessly integrated and make a meaningful contribution to the diverse domains of daily life. Their use must be effortless and reliable while providing diverse functions, such as manipulating delicate objects skillfully or avoiding obstacles autonomously. Assistance robots have the promising potential to increase the autonomy of people who have very little to no voluntary motor control of their limbs due to their disability.

The competition tasks contain elements of human-robot interaction. Both pilots and robots have to recognize and manipulate various objects and avoid obstacles on the track. Tackling tasks under a time constraint is included. Some of the competition tasks contain dynamic elements to which the pilots have to react.