Toyota is teaming up with the inventor of the Segway to make better wheelchairs
Toyota is teaming up with the inventor of the Segway to make better wheelchairs
You may or may not remember Dean Kamen’s iBOT wheelchair, but the DEKA-developed powered wheelchair was unique in that it was able to “walk” up and down stairs using two sets of powered wheels that rotated about each other. It also allowed to user to rise up to about 180cm tall from a sitting level by raising one pair of wheels above the other to elevate the chassis, thus allowing an otherwise wheelchair bound person the ability to stand.
The technologies in the iBOT were later put into more familiar technology – the Segway – and the iBOT went off the market because of cost reasons. (Only a few hundred were sold per year, largely because each one cost US$25,000.) That’s why it’s good to hear that Toyota has entered an agreement with DEKA Research and Development to license their balancing technology for use in the next generation of the iBOT.
According to the press release by the company, Toyota will “license balancing technologies held by DEKA and its affiliate for medical rehabilitative therapy and potentially other purposes.” The company already has a prototype developed based on the iBOT, so it will be interesting to see what differences 15 years of technological development can bring, and also what other developments come from the sharing of both companies’ technologies.
Here's Kamen's official statement as found on YouTube:
Sources: Toyota, The Verge, DEKA Research, Engadget, Bloomberg