Two Inria teams in the Cybathlon

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Changed on 12/03/2020
Cybathlon: A unique championship, held every four years, in which people with motor disabilities compete against each other to accomplish everyday tasks using state-of-the-art technical assistance systems.
More than 90 teams from all over the world compete in six disciplines: the Nitro and Freewheels teams, accompanied respectively by the research teams Inria Athena and Camin, will take part in two of them on 2 and 3 May (delayed on septembre) in Kloten, Switzerland. The finals will be broadcast by Swiss television throughout the country.

The Nitro team, category "BCI"

L'équipe Nitro (Inria-Sophia Antipolis) qui participe au Cybathlon 2020
  • Theodore Papadopoulo, Research Director
  • Amandine Audino, R&D engineer
  • Federica Turi, PhD
  • Paul-Emmanuel Ponsenard, Trainee biomedical engineer (Master 2)
  • Karine Leclerc, Team driver
  • Maureen Clerc, Research Director and Director of Inria Sophia Antipolis - Méditerranée

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)

For more information

We invite you to visit the Nitro team's website as well as the Athena research team's website.

The BCI is a system that connects the brain to a computer; this device makes it possible to "control by thought" a computer, a prosthesis, or any other automated system, without using the arms, hands or legs.


The aim is to allow people with major disabilities to regain a certain degree of autonomy:

  • Individuals with tetraplegia or locked-in syndrome (a patient who has all his mental faculties but can only move his eyelids) could, for example, control an exoskeleton in order to move around.
  • Amputees could control the movement of their prosthesis...
  • People who have lost their speech could speak through a computer...
  • etc

The FreeWheels team, category, catégorie "FES Bike"

L'équipe FreeWheels (Inria-Sophia Antipolis) qui participe au Cybathlon 2020
© Inria / Photo H. Raguet
  • Martin Schmoll, Post-doctoral fellow Inria
  • Ronan Le Guillou, Inria research engineer
  • Charles Fattal, Chief Physician - La Châtaigneraie
  • Xavier L'Hermitte, FreeWheels pilot
  • Bérengère Raoult, Kinesitherapist - La Châtaigneraie
  • Christine Azevedo, Inria research director

La stimulation électrique fonctionnelle (FES)

For more information

We invite you to visit the FreeWheels team's website as well as the Camin research team's website.

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) is a procedure in which an electrical current is applied to the peripheral nerves that control specific muscles or muscle groups. This action can be used to restore or improve function. In general, FES is used for exercise and rehabilitation.

Using a wireless electrical stimulator and various sensors located on the rider and the bike, we will be able to adapt the stimulation patterns according to the force required and the pedaling cycle.

The FreeWheels project is a scientific and technological collaboration for an instrumented trike solution to allow a person with a spinal cord injury to practice FES-assisted cycling in the open air. Many health benefits could result from FES-assisted cycling, such as cardiovascular health, muscle strength, bone density, risk of pressure sores, deep vein thrombosis, and last but not least, well-being.