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Toyota is bringing back the iBot

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 25 May 2016
The motorised wheelchair that allowed users to climb stairs could make a comeback with Toyota's help.
The motorised wheelchair that allowed users to climb stairs could make a comeback with Toyota's help.

Inventor of the Segway, Dean Kamen, has signed an agreement with Toyota to bring back one of his other inventions, the iBot.

The iBot is a motorised wheelchair with two sets of powered wheels that can be rotated to allow the user to "walk" up and down stairs.

The iBot went out of production in 2009 because only a few hundred units were sold a year and it was deemed too expensive at $25 000 (R389 000).

The wheelchair allows users to rise from a sitting level nearly two metres in height and travel in this "standing" configuration. It is also capable of travelling through a wide variety of terrain types, including sand, gravel and water up to 3-inches deep.

The iBot uses similar balancing technology present in the Segway, allowing the seat to remain level even when the wheels tilt to go over obstacles.

Speaking at the Paralysed Veterans of America's 70th Annual Convention, Toyota executive VP Osamu Nagata said: "Our company is focused on mobility solutions for all people. We realise it is important to help older adults and people with special needs live well and continue to contribute their talents and experience to the world."

Kamen, who founded DEKA, an R&D company to support mobility solutions for the disabled community, said: "Toyota and DEKA share the same vision of making mobility available to people of every kind of ability."

Under the terms of the agreement, Toyota will buy the licences for balancing technologies held by DEKA to potentially use them for other medical rehabilitative therapy and projects within the company.

DEKA will be able to use this money to fund the re-launch of the iBot and potentially make it cheaper for the consumer.

It was not announced when consumers can expect to see the iBot in stores or medical centres.

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