iBot Self-Balancing Mobility Device FDA Approved

ptorrone writes "In November of 2002, I was able to see the self-balancing iBot mobility device, which can go up and down stairs and travel/balance on two wheels, in person. It literally brought tears to my eyes seeing what it will mean for millions of disabled people around the world. Today, the FDA has approved its use, after years of approval processes and testing." We've mentioned this Dean Kamen-created product previously, but it's good to see it officially approved and available for those who need it.

Comments

Is the FDA approval too much of a hazzle?

[NKJensen]

Sometimes I wonder if the FDA approval is too difficult to obtain. It's always a balance between getting the products onto the market and keeping them safe. It's said to cost near one billion US$ to get a new drug on the market - not many companies can afford someting even remotely as expensive for a mechanical aid.

Re:Is the FDA approval too much of a hazzle?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why does a piece of tech require `food and/or drug` administration approval? Just develop it outside the US then. Sell it for entertainment use only, or make it a kit you have to make yourself (even if that just involves assembling some macro components).

Re:Is the FDA approval too much of a hazzle?

[amabbi]

It's said to cost near one billion US$ to get a new drug on the market...

Keep in mind, that figure includes the cost of research and development on the drug being approved, as well as previous drugs that have failed for various reasons (ineffective, toxic, etc). Neglecting the cost of failed drug research, the cost for each drug would probably cost a factor of 4 or 5 times cheaper than $1B. Still a lot of money, but hey, who said pharma was easy?

Re:FDA + Wheelchair

[SKPhoton]

Not necessarily. You still have medicare, medicaid, HMO's, etc, but those are for insurance. I'm sure there has to be some better group to test it such as the organization that tests vehicle safety.

Corrected Statement

[Anonymous Coward]

...but it's good to see it officially approved and available for those who need it.

Read: those who can afford it.

Exercise

[RupW]

Could you redesign this with a manual push mechanism? Neat though this is, if I were disabled I'd prefer to push myself. Mostly for exercise - I'm young, why let the rest of me rot? But also in case of mechanical / battery failure, etc.

Does this gyro technology work at any speed or is it kept it on a smooth motor to avoid overstretching it? Could you make a push-scooter Segway?

Re:Exercise

[jandrese]

Uh, I think there might be a problem making a pedal powered wheelchair... If you're thinking it might have something to do with the owners not having use of their legs you're on the right track.

Although it's kinda lame, you could stick a couple of handcrank generators on the sides of the wheelchair to let the rider keep the batteries charged longer. Does the wheelchair have a remaining running time display or something similar? I didn't see one in the demo, but it seems like a rather important feature (I'd rather not get caught in the middle of a long staircase with no power for instance).

Re:Compare this to the Segway

[Frambooz]

"The whole approval thing makes it possible to get part of the (very costly) wheelchair price covered by medical insurances and the like, as I've understood things correctly anyway."

Yes, and what about safety? The Segway doesn't have to be Bush- *cough* fool-proof, the wheelchair has to be.

Any fast, unexpected motion (losing balance, falling, a quick jerk forward or backward) can have far-reaching consequences for the person using the device (think about neck and back strain).

OK up to a point

[R.Caley]

But it looks to me that if you had battery probems you would be fucked. Any of us who ever had a laptop battery unexpectedly die will know how the unierse punishes reliance on that kind of technology.

I presume the FDA testing would mean that a failure going up stairs wouldn't result in it crashing to the bottom.

The traditional big-wheeled wheelchair is (relatively) low tech, cheap and, for those who can use it, gives real independence of the `let me on with my own life damn it' variety.

Obviously there are classes of dissability for which a powered chair is neccesary, stick Stephen Hawking in one of these for instance. But I wonder if there is some way to bring some of this technology to a machine which wouldn't just be a oversized couch when deprived of power, and wouldn't reduce people who don't need to be to couch potatoes.

This device is truely amazing

[jeffkjo1]

The iBot is a truely amazing piece of equipment (and its self balancing device is borrowed by the Segway Scooter.)

On top of being able to go up stairs and balance on only 2 (one wheel raised on top of the other) (designed so that the disabled can effectively "stand" at eye level with a medium height adult) It also will fit through a standard size doorway. This means that if someone is to become disabled through an accident, that they do not need to retrofit their house (or move into a new one) to continue to be functional. The iBot allows a person to traverse stairs, travel on most all terrain (pneumatic tires), and due to its function to lift a person and self balance on only 2, a person can access higher kitchen cabinets, and shelves throughout their home.

This erases the massive price tag to retrofit a persons home, which is often paid for by workplace disability or the federal government. That is not to say that the iBot is not expensive ($20,000 at last count), but the cost of refitting a home can often be signifcantly more than that.

I've seen the device at FIRST competitions in the past (another Kamen brainchild), and it is revolutionary.

This was the real purpose of the Segway

[John Harrison]

IBot will be a huge seller. The government will bear much of the cost as doctors will prescribe them and they will be covered by Medicaid. The approval process has been long and slow. The Segway served to generate public interest in the technology and get people used to it. If it weren't for awareness of the Segway and how safe it is touted to be it would have been harder to get approval of the IBot. You think the Segway is expensive, wait until you see the sticker price on these things.

This is a the real revolutionary device and it will make lots of money. I still have my doubts about whether the Segway itself will be a sucess in the next few years. That doesn't matter though, it paved the way for IBot in the court of public opinion. Imagine the reaction of people to IBot if they had never seen the Segway, "You're going to give a wheelchair-bound person what?!?" Now, with the public acclimated to the balancing technology, the reaction will be one of amazement instead of concern.

Re:This was the real purpose of the Segway

[druske]

"IBot will be a huge seller. The government will bear much of the cost as doctors will prescribe them and they will be covered by Medicaid..."

That'd be nice, but I rather doubt it'll be easy to get these expensive monsters approved. My wife has a rather simple electric wheelchair with a joystick control, and even that cost US$8,000. It took me a good bit of arguing with our HMO to get it covered, too, back in the days when my employer's health plan was worth something... these days I'd end up paying most of it out-of-pocket. With luck, it should be another two years or so before it needs to be replaced.

The other thing that will limit the iBot adoption is that it takes an extra amount of coordination to control it safely in its enhanced modes... mostly fine for people with lower spinal cord injuries or spina bifida, but probably less useful in general for cerebral palsy or the later stages of muscular dystrophy or multiple sclerosis. The people best equipped to make full use of the iBot are also those who can often get by with a manual wheelchair.

Finally, there's the "fear factor"... my wife watched a video of this thing going down stairs and declared that there was no way in hell she'd trust the machine. Her chair weighs in at around 220 pounds; a tumble with such a machine could very easily be fatal.

I do think that advanced machines like the iBot have a future, but I think that future will be a long time in arriving. Meantime, accessibility is improving all the time, and stairs aren't the obstacle they were even ten years ago. By the time a stair climbing wheelchair is widely available, cost effective, and trusted, the problem it solves will have greatly diminished.

Nothing yet..

[tprime]

Sorry, this really isn't a big deal yet. When the insurance companies, ESPECIALLY MEDICARE, pay for this under their coverage I will be impressed. For now, it is a great tool with incredible potential for helping disabled people. Most people who will need this will not be able to foot the expense to use them.

Good investment for society

[bjelkeman]

If you have someone who seriously needs one of these to be able to work, then it is a good investment for society to give them outright to the person. You will easily make back that money in tax revenue from the person as well as increase the person's self esteem enough that social problems in the family etc. induced by depression are much less likely to happen.

In the end, more significant than the Segway

[NecrosisLabs]

Although Kamen had been working on this since before the Segway, I think this will have a greater impact. The Segway, let's face it, it an interesting toy that targets a pretty narrow niche. The iBot, on the other hand, will vastly improve the quality of life for a large number of people.

Having assisted a number of people in various types of wheelchairs, the significance of this to the chair-bound cannot be overstated.