A Burnaby-based research and design team took gold at an international competition this month with a gnarly wheelchair that tackled one obstacle other teams didn’t even attempt.
MAKE+ is a group of multidisciplinary researchers at BCIT focused on product and process development, evaluation, applied research projects and education.
On Oct. 26 and 27, members of the team were in Zurich, Switzerland to compete in the 2024 Cybathlon, an international competition where people with disabilities compete against each other to complete everyday tasks using state-of-the-art technical assistance systems.
'We were pretty proud of it'
The BCIT team dominated the wheelchair discipline with The BEAST (BCIT Extending Articulating Wheelchair for Serious Terrain).
The three-wheeled chair, piloted by MAKE+ director Dr. Jaimie Borisoff, completed all 10 tasks in a record six minutes and 17 seconds, scoring a perfect 100 in the final round.
The tasks tested the chair’s manoeuvrability in tight spaces and its ability to get users through doors with both knobs and handles.
For one task, Borisoff got to show how The BEAST can get his lap under a desk or table with ease, something he called a "non-trivial problem" for wheelchair users.
"I'm sitting at my desk right now in a wheelchair, and I have to get my lap underneath it," he said during a phone interview with the Burnaby NOW. "One of the competitors, they couldn't do that task because their device was too high."
The tasks also tested The BEAST's stability on bumpy terrain, an eight-inch door sill, a steep side slope and two sets of stairs, including a particularly tricky curved staircase.
"We were pretty proud of it because we were the only ones who even tried it, and we accomplished it," Borisoff said of the curved stairs.
Another "awesome" feature of The BEAST was gauged by the height task, which required competitors to show their entry could change height by at least 30 centimetres.
"It's such a nice ability to change your height, whether you want to talk to someone at eye level or reach a shelf," Borisoff said.
A team effort
The BCIT team, which had a core of about five members, started working on The BEAST in January, putting in about six months with a crude prototype to figure out basics, such as how much torque would be needed to climb a staircase and where the pilot would need to be seated relative to the wheels.
While the group started at zero on what would become The BEAST, Borisoff said the design process involved things MAKE+ has been "playing with for a long time."
In the end, the chair ended up being a relatively simple device without any robotics or pre-configured settings, according to Borisoff.
He said he had to work the switches, brake levers and throttles for every task.
One thing that really set The BEAST apart at the competition was the large single front wheel, according to Borisoff.
In fact, the BCIT entry was the only three-wheeled device in the competition.
Borisoff said the small wheels or castors at the front of a regular wheelchair "cause a lot of grief" for wheelchair users on more challenging terrain, especially outside.
Future plans
Winning the Cybathlon competition has sparked interested in the work MAKE+ is doing, and that's a good thing, according to Borisoff.
"We're getting eyeballs on us as an institution, the way we innovate, what we can do, and also on the problem of different disabilities and barriers and challenges in society and how technology can help," he said.
As for the future of The BEAST, Borisoff said the team already has plans and partial funding to compete at the next Cybathlon four years from now.
The goal isn't necessarily to develop The BEAST as a product in itself, he said, but for the process to spark the development of related modular products that will improve mobility for every day wheelchair users.
"We think the best mobility options and technologies are going to be modular," Borisoff said. "It's much easier to buy a single attachment than it is a $40,000 or $50,000 wheelchair that does everything."
Watch The BEAST's winning run below:
Follow Cornelia Naylor on X/Twitter @CorNaylor
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