October 28, 2024 | First place for robot pilot with muscle loss
First place for DLR team EDAN with pilot Mattias Atzenhofer
Team EDAN of the German Aerospace Center poses with its gold medal after winning the ROB – Assistance Robot Race during the international Cybathlon 2024 in Kloten, Switzerland, Saturday, October 26, 2024.
Pilot Mattias Atzenhofer highly concentrated during the assistance robot race
Team EDAN from Germany on the way to victory in the ROB – Assistance Robot Race during the Cybathlon 2024 in Kloten, Switzerland, Saturday, October 26, 2024.
Image: 2/3, Credit:
ETH Zurich / Cybathlon / Alessandro Della Bella
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DLR team EDAN overcomes everyday hurdles
The EDAN team of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) on the way to victory in the ROB – Assistance Robot Race during the Cybathlon 2024 in Kloten, Switzerland, Saturday, October 26, 2024.
Image: 3/3, Credit:
ETH Zurich / Cybathlon / Alessandro Della Bella
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- The DLR team took first place in the “Assistance Robot Race” category at the Cybathlon 2024 technology competition with its EDAN assistance robotics system.
- EDAN consists of an electric wheelchair and a DLR lightweight robot arm and is a research platform for people with severe motor limitations.
- More than just “just for fun” – the competition aims to increase the acceptance of assistance technologies and reduce gaps between development and application.
- Focus: space travel, robotics, AI, assistance systems
People with physical disabilities compete in completing everyday tasks using state-of-the-art technical assistance systems: In the Cybathlon, the Olympiad of assistive technologies at ETH Zurich, 78 international teams from research and industry competed against each other from October 25th to 27th, 2024.
The team from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) took first place in the “Assistance Robot Race” category with Mattias Atzenhofer from Dachau and the EDAN robot system. The category is one of eight different disciplines in the competition. Other disciplines are testing new arm and leg prostheses, for example. The Cybathlon has existed since 2016 and takes place publicly every four years in the Swiss Arena ice hockey stadium. The aim is to increase the acceptance of assistance technologies and narrow the gaps between development and application.
Control via joystick and AI
The EDAN robotic system consists of an electric wheelchair and a DLR lightweight robot arm. This is controlled using a joystick by the 30-year-old Cybathlon pilot, who lives with muscular dystrophy. Using a camera, the DLR system can recognize various objects and supports the pilot in difficult movement sequences using artificial intelligence (AI). All it takes is for Mattias Atzenhofer to steer the robot arm in the approximate direction of a known object. The robot’s AI then takes over the precise movement sequences, so that simple joystick commands are enough to carry out the task smoothly.
This semi-autonomous operating concept enables intuitive use of the assistance robot and intelligent support when carrying out everyday activities. EDAN is intended to enable people with severe physical disabilities to carry out seemingly simple tasks such as drinking or opening doors independently. The basic idea of the Cybathlon competition is that such everyday tasks can pose a great challenge for people with disabilities. In eight different disciplines, pilots and teams will be used to solve the tasks to show how well the developed technology is suitable for supporting people in everyday life.
In the assistant robot race, Mattias Atzenhofer completed a course with ten stations: As a pilot, he had to show that he could bite into an apple, hang up a piece of clothing, grab various spices, and remove a plate from a dishwasher with the help of EDAN. A particular challenge was driving through a door – which had to be opened using a knob and then closed again using the door handle.
Competition hurdles from everyday life
“There are various hurdles that need to be overcome when it comes to the door,” explains Jörn Vogel, head of the EDAN team from the DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics. “Firstly, it is difficult to turn the doorknob because it requires strength. In addition, the task cannot be carried out with one arm movement alone, but the wheelchair has to move back at the same time to create space so that the door can be opened at all. When closing the door, the coordinated movement of the wheelchair and arm is again necessary – but first the pilot with the wheelchair has to turn around. For exactly such tasks, we have our whole-body control system, which ensures coordination between the wheelchair and the arm.”
Nevertheless, everything depends on the pilot: Mattias Atzenhofer completed the ten tasks with great concentration but with obvious joy. After a perfect score in the qualifying rounds, Team EDAN was slightly overtime in the last task, but the nine other tasks already completed flawlessly in record time ensure a confident victory. At seven minutes and 45 seconds, the DLR team was almost two minutes faster than the second-placed team from France.
From the laboratory to the people
“A new technology like this is of course initially a change. I trained weekly with the EDAN team for four months. It’s a lot of fun to be involved in shaping new inventions so closely, and it’s important to me that technical aids are developed in such a way that they really provide support,” says Mattias Atzenhofer.
“This collaboration is also a real gift for us developers,” adds Jörn Vogel. Now it’s about making DLR’s cutting-edge research accessible to users. “We are all very happy about taking first place in the assistance robotics race – especially as it shows how robust and unique EDAN is. So we are on the right track.” The scientist is about to launch a spin-off with this technology. The technology transfer is supported by the DLR_Startup Factory. The aim is to take the research from the laboratory to the people who will directly benefit from this technology.
