User-centred development of assistive technology - challenges and opportunities in the context of CYBATHLON 2020

The CYBATHLON offers a unique platform to advance research and development in the field of assistive technology, to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities, and to stimulate the dialogue with the public. To drive technical innovation, the CYBATHLON organizes competitions in six disciplines for teams consisting of a pilot, i.e. a person with a disability, and technology developers. In this context, engineers, scientists and clinicians are expected to work continuously in close dialogue with people with disabilities when developing and testing their devices. Following a successful first edition in 2016, the 2nd edition of the CYBATHLON was held in 2020, in a decentralized setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with 50 teams participating from their home institution (20 different countries from 32 different locations). During the four years separating the two editions of the CYBATHLON, the worldwide uplift of the emerging field of assistive technologies has led to an impressive number of specifically refined and newly developed technologies and devices, both on a hardware and a software level. This Article Collection on CYBATHLON 2020 aims to foster scientific exchange and to make the insights gained by the participating teams available to the wider community of rehabilitation engineering and assistive technology professionals. Our objective is to promote the unique and intense collaboration between the technology developers and the end-users within the teams in the preparation and participation to the event. Within this general topic, contributions must be application oriented and may cover hardware and software related technical aspects, user evaluation of a technology, or discuss practical approaches when preparing and training for the competition. Lessons learned from participation to the CYBATHLON and how these insights reflect in the further technical development or technology transfer of assistive technology could also be considered.