Category: RTSIC Case Study

Team Bruise and The Bike Experience

A slightly damp and overcast Monday on a stretch of windswept tarmac may not sound like the ideal way to start your week, but for one group of bikers it was a dream come true that many may have thought impossible. The Bike Experience is a charity that teaches and advises motorcyclists who have been disabled how they can ride again. Founded by Talan Skeels-Piggins in 2011 the charity is unique in its goals of assisting disabled bikers back onto two wheels.

Students from the Innovation Design Engineering course (a double masters course run in partnership between Imperial College and the RCA) were in attendance yesterday to demonstrate the Rio Tinto Sports Innovation Challenge project, the Bruise suit. This innovative system uses a film developed for the assessment of industrial machinery to assist paraplegic sports men and women to be able to determine the potential damage to their body following a knock or crash. The system was developed following discussions with Talan about his life as an alpine sit-skier as part of Team GB in the 2010 Winter Paralympics. The team went up to Silverstone yesterday to present Talan with a prototype suit and to take part in interviews for the BBC.

Team Bruise Filming with Talan Skeels-Piggins at Silverstone

World Para-Cycling Championships Underway

The World Para-Cycling Championships are underway in Mexico and Sarah Storey has won Team GB’s first medal, getting Bronze in the C5 500m time trial.  Storey only returned to the sport in December following the birth of her daughter Louisa last June. As ever there are high hopes for the Team GB cyclists, an 11 strong team which features tandem cycling pairing of Sophie Thornhill and pilot Rachel James making their major international debut and Jody Cundy who will be hoping to put behind him the false start nightmare he had in London 2012.

We are also looking forward to see Jon-Allan Butterworth perform in Mexico. Jon-Allan has been working with the RTSIC in the development of a handlebar attachment to help him achieve a powerful standing start. Work continues on this project and we hope to see it in use for future events such as Rio 2016.

 

 

Action commences in Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics

While we are bracing ourselves for another onslaught of wind and rain, Team GB’s Winter Olympic hopefuls in the sub-tropical climate of Sochi are gearing up for action as the first events have begun today.

First news from Sochi is that GB’s Jamie Nicholls has qualified for the Slopestyle (snowboarding) finals on Saturday and his team mate Billy Morgan has a second chance to make the finals through the semi-finals on Saturday.

Keeping the winter sports theme, check out this great cartoon from George Washington University. It’s a really nice way of demonstrating the great work that goes on within the Bioengineering Sector and trying to attract the next generation of young Bioengineers.

Finally, there was an interesting story on the BBC regarding the development sensor technology, within a bionic hand, to enable the user to be feel the form, stiffness and texture of an object as they grab it. This work forms part of a whole body of interesting research into the use of electrical stimulus to provide both feedback and control over prosthetic limbs.

RTSIC Case Study

If the article above has caught your interest then check out this RTSIC 2nd Year Bioengineering project from 2011/12, which utilised Electromyography  to enable gear changing on a bicycle for cyclists with upper limb prostheses.

 

GB Paralympic Sailors waiting patiently for the wind in Miami

The 3rd round of the ISAF Sailing World Cup are underway in Miami and there are high hopes for the British Adaptive Sailors if the wind finally picks up to enable them to race. There are three disabled categories in the Sailing World Cup, 2.4mR, SKUD 18 and SONAR.

Racing for GB in the 2.4mR category are Megan Pascoe (currently ranked number 1 in the world) and Helena Lucas MBE (the 1st British Sailor ever to win Paralympic Gold). In the SKUD 18 category is the pairing of Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell (Bronze medal winners at London 2012 and winners of 4 World Championship titles). The 3 person team of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Stephen Thomas will race in the SONAR category.

Racing is scheduled to run until Saturday 1st February and we wish the best of luck to all 39 British Sailors competing both in the Disabled and Able Bodied categories.

Sailing for disabled people has been increasing in popularity since the mid-80’s. Competition is open to all physical impairment groups and athletes with visual impairments, the classification system is a based on points given for levels of functionality (see the British Paralympic Assocaition website for more details).

RTSIC Case Study

In 2011/12 a 2nd year Bioengineering Group Project focused on developing a navigational aid to enable visually impaired athletes to sail in single-person keel boat classes such as the 2.4mR . The team developed a Bluetooth based communication system along with a haptic feedback harness for the sailor and an interface app for use by coaches to act as remote guides to provide navigational information. Check out their project poster here.