Cybathlon
Cybathlon is an international competition comprising eight different disciplines: during the competitions, people with disabilities compete in performing everyday tasks using state-of-the-art assistive technologies developed and optimised by the teams. The team from Politecnico di Milano participates in the FES-bike (Functional Electrical Stimulation Bike) discipline, in which a rider with complete paraplegia runs using a passive trike and an electrical muscle stimulator capable of sending trains of coordinated impulses through surface electrodes that induce the contraction of paralysed muscles. The participating teams are required to optimise the mechanics and seating of the trike of a commercial system, install the sensors on the trike, define and optimise the pacing strategy, transfer the control system to an embedded system and develop the user interface and diagnostics software.
In 2019, a group of researchers and students began designing the first prototype of the FES bike. Since then, the Polimi Fes Bike Team has expanded and continued to work on improving the device and its performance. The addition of new sensors to improve the feedback of the trike and the study of different stimulation strategies are two of the main innovations introduced by the Politecnico di Milano team to be competitive in the Cybathlon 2024 competition.
Recruiting
At the moment, the recruiting period is closed. Next recruting process will be in November 2024 and it will be open to all Laurea Magistrale (Master of Science) students of the Politecnico. For information, you can send an email to emilia.ambrosini@polimi.it and nicole.sanna@polimi.it.