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Cybathlon 2020 - Global Edition: Isir's French Smart ArM team competes in the

The Smart ArM (SAM) team from the Institute for Intelligent Systems and Robotics (Isir)* will participate on November 13 and 14 in the Cybathlon 2020 - Global Edition. This sports competition is aimed at people with disabilities who use assistive technology. The SAM team will compete in the "Powered ArM Prosthesis Race" category (race for amputees with prosthesis).

Cybathlon is a unique international competition in which athletes with a disability compete in events where bionic assistive technologies are allowed. Through these events, they must perform everyday tasks using the latest assistive technology systems such as robotic prostheses, motorized exoskeletons or brain-machine interfaces.

This year, each team will run their event at their local base and film their race. From Zurïch, the competitions will be broadcast via a platform for a unique live program.

 

The only French team in the category "race with a robotic arm"

 

The Smart ArM team is led by Nathanaël Jarrassé, a CNRS researcher in the AGATHE team at Isir and a specialist in robotics for rehabilitation and assistance. The team is composed of about fifteen researchers, researchers, engineers, doctoral students and PhD students from the field of robotics or neurosciences. The scientists are supported by a group of doctors from the equipment department of the regional rehabilitation institute (IRR) of Nancy (UGECAM Nord-Est) and a "pilot", who will defend the colors of SAM using the prototype prosthesis developed by the team in the upcoming competition.

 

(Part of the) Smart ArM (SAM) team members. From left to right: F. Vérité, J. Mago, A. Poignant, C. Drouot, C. Huchet, C. Marchand, N. Jarrassé, P. Gauthier, F. Richer, G. Le Buan-Mania.

 

Christophe Huchet is the pilot of theSmart ArM team. Born with an agenesis of the right forearm, this high level sportsman has been multiple champion of handisport and valid swimming. A restaurant creator for 20 years, he is now a certified coach and accompanies the managers of small and medium sized companies.

The Smart ArM team is the only French team to take part in the Powered ArM Prosthesis Race and one of the only ones with a driver born without forearms. It will present during the competition a very advanced prototype of arm prosthesis (elbow, wrist and hand). The result of several years of research at the ISIR on intuitive and natural control based on decoding motor control in humans, this prosthesis was recently patented.

 

Assistive robotic technology created by humans for humans

 

The objective of the Smart ArM team's participation is twofold. On the one hand, it is to promote their technological innovations outside the laboratory and to test and improve them in an intense and stimulating competition context. On the other hand, the team hopes to draw the attention of the general public to the particular handicaps of amputation and upper limb agenesis and to the real possibilities (and limits) of assistive robotic technologies. Finally, they wish to highlight the major role of the human in this "man-machine" coupling whose success is too often attributed to technology alone.

 

Prototype arm prosthesis made at Isir.

 

Get behind the scenes of the Smart ArM team and don't miss any news. Join them on Twitter(@TeamSAM2020) and on Instagram(@ team_smart_arm).

 


*The Institute of Intelligent Systems and Robotics (Isir) is a Joint Research Unit (UMR7222) under the supervision of Sorbonne University, The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Inserm (ERL-U1150). This multidisciplinary research laboratory brings together researchers and teacher-researchers from different disciplines of Engineering and Information Sciences as well as Life Sciences.