Cybathlon Click - Short Edition


Cybathlon

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but before that it's time for Click.

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This is the world's first bionic games.

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This is an arena in Munich and around 2,500 people are getting

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ready to cheer on some of the most extraordinary athletes

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This is an event for people with bionic arms, robotic legs,

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motorised wheelchairs and brain controls, but it is not just

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a challenge for the competitors, who are going to be called pilots

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today, but also for the technologists who created these

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They are awesome, this is going to be awesome and this

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66 teams from all over the globe have been designing,

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building and training for this very unique competition.

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Disabled athletes, here known as pilots will be competing

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The Cybathalon is the brainchild of this man, Robert Reiner,

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a professor for sensory motor systems in Munich.

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a professor for sensory motor systems at ETH Zurich.

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It's an event for people with disabilities who are allowed

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to use any kind of technology, technology that helps them to better

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So we are focusing on challenges of daily life and by allowing

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technology we can also include people with very severe

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I'm most excited about this notion that scientists and technologists

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spend the entire year inventing these crazy bionic limbs

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and then everyone comes together to compete in this celebratory way.

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It's fantastic, it's such an extraordinary expression

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Each of the six disciplines will have qualifiers in the morning

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before the grand finals in the afternoon.

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How do you win? Simple.

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Get round the course or through the obstacles

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in the shortest time while incurring the lowest

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Well, that's what it's all about but this is where

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We're looking at challenges that are real day-to-day activities,

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something like getting through a door in a wheelchair

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As we move towards here we're seeing something that shows

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The arm prosthesis race involves being able to open a bottle,

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open a can, cut bread and as we head further in this direction,

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there's different types of bumpy floor and when it comes

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to the exoskeleton race, the leg prosthetic race and also

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the motorised wheelchair race, there are various challenges

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they have to cross over and in fact, the stairs are looking like one

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of the real highlights to that wheelchair race.

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That's something I'm looking forward to seeing,

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they've got to be able to get up and down at the end of the course

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Back to you, Spen, what do you have to show us?

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Our first event of the day is the Powered Arm Prosthesis Race,

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a series of tasks designed to really test those robotic digits,

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and this is what goes into making a robotic arm.

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This sensor can pick up my signal by pasting this sound

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So this one is the flexor muscle and this one is the extended muscle

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and the third one is the thumb muscle.

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So the competitors are using just two signals to operate this thing.

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The whole system can analyse the images, directly translate

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Maybe we can win because of that point.

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Yes, the Powered Arm Prosthesis Race is not just about power,

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it is also about precision and reliability.

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The teams need to come up with the very best ideas

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to help their pilots grip, twist and balance their way along

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The race is designed to test how well pilots can work

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complete tasks that would typically be challenging for them.

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Yes, this is the race where the mightiest tech

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in the world can be foiled by the humble clothes peg.

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What's the next challenge that you feel you could reasonably

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What's amazing is the huge variety in designs for these prosthetic

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hands, some have five fingers and some only have two but as long

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as it does the job, you have the freedom to design these

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The ultimate victor was a group of biomechanical engineering

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Together with their pilot, Bob, himself an expert in prosthetics,

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they went for a more established body-powered approach.

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This means that physical movements like reaching forward

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or lifting your shoulders are used to control the device.

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While this gold medal idea might have won the day,

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in the end just crossing the line was enough to send most

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The training for Cybathalon certainly seems as intense as any

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athletics event and how about this for focus?

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These pilots have complete or severe loss of moter function

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and are using a brain controlled interface to take part in a virtual

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He pilots and navigates obstacles which seem easy to those with two

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legs but are really tough for traditional prosthetics

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and it was a contender from Iceland's Rio Knee

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Now as amazing as all the events are today, the next one

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you might think is particularly unusual,

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because you are not going to see any mechanics or any robotics.

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This is called FES, functional electric simulation,

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and it's a bike race between two riders who are using their legs

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The deal is, both riders are paralysed, they cannot

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ordinarily move their legs and they are using electrical

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signals to trigger the muscles in their legs.

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I had a trampoline accident back in 2011.

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And I became what is known as tetraplegic, I have issues

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with moving all four limbs, my legs completely I cannot move.

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My arms and hands, I have difficulty moving.

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Technology for disabled people is quite expensive these days,

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if more technology firms and universities collaborate

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they can make the technology more available for disabled people.

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To prepare for the Cybathalon I have been doing about one hour a day

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I have the arm cycles as well and we are not allowed to use that,

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so I had to do some testing to make sure that my legs are up to speed.

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At the minimum, I'd like to be in the top three, although I think

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I'm doing very well, I still do not know what is going

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It's not like the Paralympics where you sort of have a base rate

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already, it has happened before, everything is a bit in the unknown,

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so until I get there, who knows what will happen.

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Well, Jolie wanted third or and his wish came true.

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He was second fastest of all the qualifiers

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which placed him in the final showdown against Mark Moon

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As the heat continued, you can see that timing

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was everything, if the electrical pulses do not fire

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at the right time, you can end up pedalling backwards.

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Another thing that became clear, this is a physically exhausting

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event and that's actually a good thing, as the creator of the bike

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Normally, people with spinal injury, they have wasted muscles,

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One guy here with more muscles than I have.

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Now, there are two different techniques of FES that we have heard

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of, one that you stick the electrodes

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are actually implanting the electrodes in the legs.

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We only use adhesive electrodes or shorts,

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we already made shorts with electrodes on, you put them on,

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but they implanted it, the Americans implanted it.

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It's a little bit better for racing performance,

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but most of them do not want it, it is very expensive,

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if it gives trouble and they have in the past, you have to take it out

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This can just be used by any person with a spinal injury almost.

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And it was against an American with implants that Johnny found himself

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in the grand final. And after a monumental

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effort from both pilots, it was Mark Moon who out

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rode Johnny to win. You looked seriously focused there,

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how did it feel for you? It felt amazing, going really fast,

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I thought I was going to beat him, Went too high and had a bit

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of a reverse effect. That's it for the short version of

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Click at the side battle on. Please check out the full-length version,

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there's so much more amazing stuff available on iPlayer right now and

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you get me through the week on Twitter @BBCclick. Thanks so much

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for watching and we'll see you soon.

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