Getting to grips with a new hand

Xu Min and her team demonstrate her bionic prosthesis at a promotional event for Cybathlon 2024, which will attract 160 teams from across the world. At the Rehabilitation Engineering Technology Department at the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, engineers and researchers are busy adjusting a myoelectric prosthetic hand. "These tasks are routine and delicate, by which, I think, the organizers intend to test if the artificial hand can replicate the dexterity and functionality of a human hand," Xu says. Started by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and held since 2016, the quadrennial event is also known as the "Olympics of assistive technologies".