November 26, 2002. Copyright 2002. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Revolutionary iBOT brings new freedom for wheelchair users

Far from being confined to a wheelchair, many disabled people have actually been confined by it -- to the relatively few smooth, flat surfaces found only in towns and cities. Now, a widely anticipated mobility aid is set to change all that, enabling the physically challenged to traverse uneven terrain, climb stairs, and even stand and move upright.

The Independence IBOT 3000, or Individual Balancing Optimized Transporter, is the brainchild of Dean Kamen, designer of the ingenious Segway scooter, who first set his mind to the task after watching a man struggling to get his wheelchair up a curb just a few inches high. Thinking he could solve the problem using existing technology to tackle both curbs and stairs, he soon found that the difficulty lay in staying balanced in unstable situations while continuing to move. When, years later, he slipped and almost fell coming out of his shower -- whirling his arms as he attempted to stay upright -- he realised how humans maintain their balance by creating a counterweight and proceeded to apply that capability to a wheelchair.

Using solid-state gyroscopes and electric motors -- and backed up with more than $100 million invested by health-care heavyweight Johnson & Johnson -- Kamen and his team designed a prototype that was able to control its own balance. TodayÕs iBOT, looking like a cross between a moon rover and a compact wheelchair, uses his patented self-balancing technology to offer five different modes of use -- standard (for normal travel at speeds up to 6mph), 4-wheel (for rough terrain), stairs, balance (to stand on two wheels) and remote (for loading into a vehicle).

Despite its expected cost of $29,000 -- three times the price of a basic electric wheelchair --  buyers are already queuing for the iBOT.  ÒI wanted to take it home and keep it,Ó said trialler Karl Barnard, who found he could rise to the height of a 6-feet-tall person to do his grocery shopping without help and was able to get about the hilly terrain of his New Hampshire farm. The average cost of home conversions such as ramps, door-widening and elevators for someone unable to walk is around $40,000, meaning that businesses and government could save billions in the cost of conversions required by equal access legislation. Independence Technology -- the J&J subsidiary that will market the product -- is currently negotiating with Medicare and other insurers to pay for it in the U.S.

Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have now recommended approval of the iBOT but warn that it will not suit all wheelchair users and that special training will be necessary for both patients and prescribing doctors. Nevertheless, in tests the iBOT appears to be at least as safe as existing wheelchair technology while offering users an unprecedented degree of freedom.
/ENDS

Sources: Independence Technology, Associated Press, Business Week