FES-Cycling at the Cybathlon 2024: assessing accuracy of power-pedals for low power output in a virtual race scenario.

The paper reports competition and equipment accuracy, not patient outcomes or treatment effects. Power accuracy testing used one healthy participant, not pilots with spinal cord injury. Race analysis used data from eight of ten pilots; one team did not provide original files and one team's results were self-reported. The smart trainer could not measure power below 20 W, so some low-power segments were excluded. Virtual race model used pilot body weight but not device weight, making speeds not comparable to over-ground cycling.

Do not use these power readings as accurate measures of client output during low-power FES cycling. The study found systematic overestimation by pedal power meters, and the errors were larger when an ankle orthosis was used. In race segments above the smart trainer threshold, pedal errors ranged from 14.7% to 66.6%.