IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2017 - 6
INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITIES
Interview with Ottobock's
Exoskeleton Team Leader
By Erwin Prassler and Arturo Baroncelli
T
he following is an interview
conducted by Peter Wolf, a guest
editor of this issue of IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine (RAM), who interviewed Roland
Auberger, the leader of the team from
Ottobock, Germany, in the Cybathlon 2016 Exoskeleton contest.
RAM: Why did you decide to participate?
Roland Auberger: We were excited
by the vision of Cybathlon: to show
what assistive technology can do for the
users. As this event was also a great
opportunity to see how our products are
performing compared to our competitors, Ottobock started with three teams:
Michelangelo (upper extremity prosthetics), Genium (lower extremity prosthetics), and C-Brace (exoskeleton). The
competitive aspect was secondary,
because all participants of Cybathlon
share the same vision: to increase the
quality of life for people with disabilities.
check, on the evening before the Cybathlon, the medical team disqualified
her because she was not meeting the
inclusion criteria, although she was
accepted based on the upfront tests. She
took this very personally because she
felt she was being accused of pretending to be paralyzed. However, as Cybathlon is about inclusion, our pilot
participated in the race noncompetitively and could still demonstrate her
high level of mobility by using her
C-Braces (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The first fitting of the bilateral
C-Brace system: final adjustments by the
certified prosthetic orthotist on the pilot.
(Photo courtesy of Ottobock.)
RAM: What was the impact on your
pilots?
Auberger: The three Ottobock pilots
experienced the event differently. The
Michelangelo pilot is a para snowboarder and the Genium pilot is a para
triathlete-both are very competitive
and Paralympic athletes-they both
wanted to win. The C-Brace pilot's
RAM: Did the decision to participate
affect your research and development
activities?
Auberger: Not really, because we
used purposely commercially available
products only. We did not perform any
modifications, because we wanted to
represent Ottobock's commercially
available state-of-the-art products.
RAM: What was the most challenging
issue in participating?
Auberger: The exoskeleton race
Ottobock pilot had to undergo several
medical checks before being accepted
for the event. At the final medical
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2017.2757612
Date of publication: 13 December 2017
6
*
IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE
*
Figure 2. The last meters of the race: the expression on this participant's face tells
everything. (Photo courtesy of ETH Zürich, Switzerland.)
DECEMBER 2017
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2017
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2017 - Cover1
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