Internationale Partnersuche

Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Training robot for a safe, high performance strength training with a free barbell

Country of Origin: Austria
Reference Number: TOAT20180312001
Publication Date: 12 March 2018

Summary

An Austrian company developed a rehabilitation and training robot for high performance athletes. The robot overcomes common safety issues of athletes who are training with heavy loads. Furthermore, the robot enables injured athletes to train with heavy virtual loads and to train a wide range of exercises. The company is looking for commercial agreements with technical assistance and for research and technical cooperation agreements.

Description

An Austrian company developed a novel training robot for high performance athletes who need to maximize their strength gains with a free barbell.



Common trainings with heavyweight barbells pose a relatively high injury risk. Consequently, athletes are often limited to train with weights, which they can handle for sure. This novel training robot enables athletes to train with heavy loads of up to 400 kg. Therefore two robot arms are moving up and down depending on the current position of the barbell (sensor based), so the distance between the barbell and the arms stays constant. In case that an athlete loses control over his barbell the robot recognizes that the maximum velocity of descent is exceeded and "catches" the barbell in a safe and reliable way, thereby providing optimum protection from injuries. 



Furthermore the virtual load simulation enables a wide range of exercises like knee bend, bench press, bench pulls, rowing forward, shoulder press, front pulls, neck pulls, deadlifts, lat-pulls, pull-ups, biceps curls or triceps curls all without the need of a conventional barbell.



The robot itself is controlled by an intuitive graphical display where the athlete can log-in and can access his individual predefined training procedures. During the training, the athlete gets direct feedback via the display (force measurements, ...). Once the training is finished, the athlete can for instance export log files for further discussion with the trainer on a portable training terminal.



Before starting a training the athletes shape can be scanned by the robot to set the maximum and minimum movement thresholds.



Especially for beginners, predefined standard exercises are programmed and an electronic exercise manual is implemented.



The technology is already successfully applied for research and development purposes and first pilot-studies demonstrated advantageous training results. 

At the "Olympic Center Tirol Innsbruck" and the "University of Salzburg" almost all athletes are using the training robot due to its unique training quality.



Partners are sought for:

1) Commercial agreements with technical assistance to distribute the technology and ensure a professional installation of the robot as well as a professional instruction of the operating staff. 

2) Research cooperation agreements to implement further scientific studies (e.g. to study the psychological training effect)

3) Technical cooperation agreements to further develop the technology (e.g. integration of virtual reality applications).

Advantages and Innovations

The main advantages of the novel training robot are:



1) Safety -> No risk for the athlete even with heavy loads (up to 400 kg)



2) Psychological training effect -> Working with loads the athlete would otherwise not be able to train with



3) Variation of loads -> e.g in case that a knee should not be stressed in a specific position



4)  Fully programmable -> Velocity, load, maximum and minimum thresholds, ... . 



5)  Variation of exercises -> Concentric & eccentric training enabled

Stage Of Development

Already on the market

Requested partner

Area of activity and role of the partner:



1) Companies with existing distribution networks in the field of training robotics. Ideally the partner should be in direct contact with the end customer to ensure a skilled installation of the robot as well as a professional instruction of the operating staff. Potential partners should distribute the technology in their existing networks, organize the installation of the technology and offer general after sales services. General service and maintenance would be done by the Austrian company. A remote servicing of the robot is possible via the integrated computer. In this sense a commercial agreement with technical assistance is sought.



2) Partners with innovative ideas and an excellent scientific infrastructure to further develop the technology in respect to cost efficiency and further applications. In this sense a technical cooperation agreement is sought.



3) Partners such as Olympic centres to conduct specific clinical studies in different sporting disciplines as for example in the area of American football or ski jumping. In this sense a research cooperation agreement is sought.