Trying her hand at competition

Amputee teams up with biomedical engineer developing advanced prosthetic limbs to win top spot at this year's Cybathlon Challenges, an international assistive technology event, Yang Feiyue reports.

Xu Min would never have expected that, despite the misfortune of losing her right arm in an accident decades ago, she would become champion of a global contest.

The moment that Xu, in her 40s, heard the shrill beep, she sprang into action at the competition in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, on March 29.

Equipped with a robotic, forearm prosthesis, the woman looked like a warrior from a sci-fi movie. She quickly grabbed four large bottles full of liquid with her mechanical hand and placed them in a storage basket before moving the basket to the designated location.

Then, she wasted no time taking up a second round of challenges — to collect small beads, each with a diameter of 1 centimeter, and to insert keys and cards into their respective slots.

Again, Xu adroitly breezed through the tasks with zero slip-ups.

Her total time ended up being two seconds quicker than her nearest competitor, earning her the championship title at the Cybathlon Challenges 2023, which was streamed online on March 29.

Her title was achieved thanks to a team of experts from the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, based in East China's Jiangsu.

The Cybathlon is an international assistive technology competition and rehabilitation event organized by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich). It showcases the latest research achievements, encourages and supports teams from around the world to develop assistive technologies suitable for daily use by people with disabilities.

The competition participants use the latest assistive technologies and equipment to perform various daily tasks. In addition to the competitive sessions, Cybathlon also provides a public platform to promote research in the assistive technology and rehabilitation industry, strengthens dialogue with the public, and promotes the rehabilitation and social integration of people with disabilities.

"I never thought that I could stand at the top of a global competition podium and win the top prize," Xu says, adding that she owes everything to her robotic arm.