In these unprecedented times, the ALEX team wishes you and your families health and resilience. The brand new ALEX 2020 team, together with a few of last year's members have been working hard throughout this situation. A lot of development has been done on the exoskeleton prior to the lockdown, with training sessions running two days a week on replica sections of the Cybathlon course in our new training location - Heidelberg warehouse. Our pilot Brad can now perform the first few obstacles of the race and has shown amazing improvement over the months.
In light of the COVID-19 situation, the Cybathlon Competition has been postponed to the 19 - 20 September due to measures taken to protect the public. The team now have more time to prepare for the competition, which is ideal in light of the current situation and delays expected.
What is going on for ALEX?
All work on the physical exoskeleton has been paused, effective from 24th March 2020 as laboratory and facilities will be restricted temporarily.
For the health, safety and wellbeing of the team members and pilot, no training sessions will take place until restrictions on exoskeletons and facilities are lifted.
What Happens Next?
The ALEX team objectives of developing the exoskeleton and extending its capabilities for use in the Cybathlon competition remains unchanged, though current circumstances may result in changes in timeline moving forward. During this period where social distancing measures are being implemented, the ALEX team objectives have been transitioned online wherever appropriate. The team has developed two pathways of work which allows for appropriate research, testing, software and hardware development to be carried out “off” the exoskeleton whilst we are in this situation. We are pleased to inform you that our work will not stop here! Some expectation of what we are trying to develop during this period are:
Dynamic Modelling of Exoskeleton Trajectory
Simulation or Virtual platform for testing of Exoskeleton
Expansion of the Crutch User Interface to provide pilot with detailed feedback
Hardware simulation platform for component design and testing
Let's watch a video of our progress this far!
We'll be continuously working on the project throughout these hard times. On behalf of the ALEX team, take care and stay strong!