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Source publication
Purpose:
The purpose of the study was presentation of modern bioengineering technology in order to help people with severe disabilities.
Methods:
Bioengineering industry can offer severely disabled people several devices in order to enable them to take part in the competition different than Paralympics. The first international competition for pe...
Citations
... The Cybathlon 2020 Global Edition is a championship that gathered fifty-one teams from all over the world in six disciplines: powered arm prosthesis, brain-computer interface, powered exoskeleton, functional electrical stimulation bike (PNF et al. (2020)), powered leg prosthesis and powered wheelchair (official website: https://cybathlon.ethz.ch/). The aim of the Cybathlon is to promote research and development in the field of powered assistive technology to the public (Erdmann et al. (2020)). Since the first edition in 2016 (Erdmann et al. (2020)), the Cybathlon organization has worked hard to define the obstacles of the races representing everyday challenges for people with disabilities and to set up a fair competition. ...
... The aim of the Cybathlon is to promote research and development in the field of powered assistive technology to the public (Erdmann et al. (2020)). Since the first edition in 2016 (Erdmann et al. (2020)), the Cybathlon organization has worked hard to define the obstacles of the races representing everyday challenges for people with disabilities and to set up a fair competition. ...
Lower-limb exoskeletons are a promising option to increase the mobility of persons with leg impairments in a near future. However, it is still challenging for them to ensure the necessary stability and agility to face obstacles, particularly the variety that makes the urban environment. That is why most of the lower-limb exoskeletons must be used with crutches: the stability and agility features are deferred to the patient. Clinical experience shows that the use of crutches not only leads to shoulder pain and exhaustion, but also fully occupies the hands for daily tasks. In November 2020, Wandercraft presented Atalante Evolution, the first self-stabilized and crutch-less exoskeleton, to the powered exoskeleton race of the Cybathlon 2020 Global Edition. The Cybathlon aims at promoting research and development in the field of powered assistive technology to the public, contrary to the Paralympics where only participants with unpowered assistive technology are allowed. The race is designed to represent the challenges that a person could face every day in their environment: climbing stairs, walking through rough terrain, or descending ramps. Atalante Evolution is a 12 degree-of-freedom exoskeleton capable of moving dynamically with a complete paraplegic person. The challenge of this competition is to generate and execute new dynamic motions in a short time, to achieve different tasks. In this paper, an overview of Atalante Evolution system and of our framework for dynamic trajectory generation based on the direct collocation method will be presented. Next, the flexibility and efficiency of the dynamic motion generation framework are demonstrated by our tools developed for generating the important variety of stable motions required by the competition. A smartphone application has been developed to allow the pilot to choose between different modes and to control the motion direction according to the real situation to reach a destination. The advanced mechatronic design and the active cooperation of the pilot with the device will also be highlighted. As a result, Atalante Evolution allowed the pilot to complete four out of six obstacles, without crutches. Our developments lead to stable dynamic movements of the exoskeleton, hands-free walking, more natural stand-up and turning moves, and consequently a better physical condition of the pilot after the race compared to the challengers. The versatility and good results of these developments give hope that exoskeletons will soon be able to evolve in challenging everyday-life environments, allowing patients to live a normal life in complete autonomy.
Study purpose. The purpose of the study was to investigate the need for physical education and sports specialists to acquire competencies for the organization of educational activities for sustainable development and their understanding of the involvement of the field of physical education and sports in the implementation of sustainable development goals. Materials and methods. The study involved 106 specialists in physical education and sports from various regions of Ukraine (73 women and 33 men). The participants comprised representatives of general secondary education institutions (schools, lycées, gymnasiums) – 70.7% of the respondents (75 persons), representatives of higher education institutions (universities and academies) – 11.3% of the respondents (12 persons), representatives of sports institutions (youth sports schools and sports complexes) – 10.4% of the respondents (11 persons), representatives of vocational education institutions (schools, colleges) and out-of-school youth work centers – 7.5% of the respondents (8 persons). The respondents’ work experience in the field of physical education and sports ranged from 1 to 45 years. The study used the methods of surveying, analysis and synthesis of information, and mathematical information processing. Results. The survey revealed that most of the respondents are not sufficiently familiar with the issues of sustainable development. 51.89 % of the respondents indicate partial awareness of the concept and sustainable development goals, 5.66 % claim that they are not familiar with such information at all. The majority of the physical culture and sports specialists who participated in the experiment do not understand the essence and depth of Sustainable Development Goals and only link physical education and sports to such Sustainable Development Goals as good health and well-being (Goal 3), quality education (Goal 4), and gender equality (Goal 5). Conclusions. It was found that only 3.8% of the respondents can find a correlation between the field of physical education and sports and the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals. 62.26% of the respondents indicate that they need to expand their knowledge and skills on sustainable development, 46.23% of the respondents want to deepen the knowledge and skills in the methodology of implementing education for sustainable development. Most of the surveyed physical education and sports specialists need advanced training to acquire the competencies necessary for the implementation of educational activities for sustainable development.
