Robert Riener

Robert is the founder of the Cybathlon, the world’s only championship where people with disabilities compete with assistive devices and robotic technologies. The event has received extensive media coverage and has been dubbed “The Olympics For Augmented Humans”.

Robert is Professor for Sensory-Motor Systems at the Department of Health Sciences and Technology, ETH Zurich. His research interests include human motion synthesis, biomechanics, virtual reality, human-machine interaction and rehabilitation robotics.

He has authored and co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles and has 23 patents. He is a member of several scientific societies (e.g. IEEE/EMBS, DGBMT/VDE, IFESS) and an associate editor of several scientific journals. For his development of the arm therapy robot ARMin, he was awarded several prizes including the humanTech Innovation Prize and the Swiss Technology Award. He was also awarded the IEEE TNSRE Best Paper Award 2010 and the euRobotics Technology Transfer Awards 2011 and 2012.

Robert’s dynamic and inspirational presentations take the audience on a journey through the latest innovations in robotics, biomechanics and VR, showing how they’ll impact business and society, and also illuminating potential investment opportunities. In addition, Robert’s pioneering work with the Cybathlon not only shows how such innovations can radically improve people’s lives; it is also an inspirational effort to break down the barriers that exist between people with disabilities and society at large.

Watch Robert’s TED Talk here