Claudia Briedbach wants to prove she's the best
at using one of the world's most sophisticated bionic arms.
Over the next two days, she'll compete in the
powered arm prosthetics series race.
It's an early rehearsal for a global
competition called the Cybathlon.
With these ordinary tasks, the Cybathlon is the place to see just how
far this technology has come in the past decade.
Even while the competition pushes more
life changing innovation.
Claudia came in fourth in the first global Cybathlon
back in 2016.
Claudia has been training ever since
and this is an early test for her in the lead up
to the global competition in 2020.
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Over the next two days,
Claudia will compete in three qualifying races
and two finals.
Each race covers the same obstacle course
with tasks like breakfast and laundry.
in the big 2020 competition.
This is the haptic box challenge.
It's a brand new task and Claudia has to
match objects by feeling them.
She gets to try it out before the race begins.
In this first race, Claudia is up against Roza Bellin
from the Italian team softhand pro
and she doesn't do well.
These races focus on tasks that are easy
for the human hand, but are incredibly difficult
even with the most advanced robotic arm.
And that's the point.
Reiner came up with the idea for the
competition and he says early races like this one
give teams a preview of the tasks
so that engineers can design process prosthetics
that can handle them for 2020
and then that tech makes it to the public.
In the past decade there's been a revolution
in technology designed to help people like Claudia.
From powered limbs to wheelchairs
that can climb stairs to exoskeletons
and the Cybathlon includes races for all this tech.
And it's done a lot to push it forward.
And those improvements are a big deal.
Right now up to 60% of people with upper limb
amputation that are fitted for prosthetic devices
fail to use them regularly.
This is the final race in the powered arm prostheses
series competition and Claudia has reworked her strategy.
Whoever has the most points at the end will win.