Page 10 - The Mobility Project, April 2020

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for growth as long as it’s customer-centric,” Viswanathan said. “The challenge in robotics is that it often ends up being a technology push. As long as the focus stays on the problems rather than the solutions and on the customer rather than the developer, there is tremendous opportunity.”
A WINDING ROAD FOR IBOT & TOYOTA
The path for robotics in complex rehab has been long and winding over the past two decades, including the widely publi- cized production (and later discontinuation) of the iBOT stair- climbing wheelchair system.
In 2003, Independence Technology — a division of healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson — introduced the iBOT to rave reviews from mainstream media, who hailed the wheelchair as a revolu- tionary device that “will force [wheelchair users] to reconsider virtually all the presumed boundaries in the world,” according to one Dateline NBC reporter.
But with iBOT’s lack of positioning functions such as tilt
and recline, as well as its $26,000 price tag, Independence Technology struggled, ultimately dissolving in 2009. The iBOT has been revived by others, including Toyota North America and most recently by Mobius Mobility, which began marketing the chair in 2019 with some added positioning functions.
Toyota is no longer involved with the iBOT nearly four years
after signing an agreement with inventor Dean Kamen to develop the “next generation” of iBOT, according to Doug Moore, the GM, Technology for Human Support at Toyota North America. Instead, Toyota has been at work on mobility-related projects including an AI robot with voice control capability.
“We have been spending a ton of time, especially in this complex rehab area, making sure that we understand the real needs,” Moore said. “We’ve been looking at the end customers, whether it’s direct users, caregivers, care receivers or [healthcare professionals].”
Moore stopped short of committing to any mobility product releases from the company. At the same time, he stressed that Toyota is focused on developing inclusive products.
“I’ve intentionally tried to make sure we don’t over-promise and under-deliver, because there’s still a lot of thinking that has to go into these platforms to make sure we can execute it right,” Moore said.
ROBOTICS PRODUCTS COME TO COMPLEX REHAB
Robotics engineers in the CRT and mobility world have one trait in common: a desire to see their algorithms and technical work turn into an application that changes people’s lives.
For Jay Beavers, a co-founder and managing member of Seattle-based Evergreen Circuits, the inspiration came from Steve
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