Labrador's robotic shelf for people with mobility issues
theverge.com
theverge.com
I really hope this doesn't cost too much. Disabled people tend not to have much money, and my insurance company wouldn't even pay for ramps, much less something like this.
It costs (in USD, although I do not live in the US) nearly $2200. I do not believe it costs anything like that much to manufacture. Added together with a desk, arm supports, and table that they recommended and you end up with nearly $10000 in costs.
Someone, somewhere is making a lot of money out of healthcare systems.
(If you run the math, that’s roughly 2-3 days of work for an engineer that earns 250k, without even considering all attached costs)
I mean sure most of above can be setup with MoveIT if hardware is already assembled, but making it fail proof for 100s of different houses and use cases is an engineering effort
Obviously the stakes are a little higher with a mobility assistance device. But the fundamentals of the technology are well solved already, and I wouldn’t be surprised if companies like Roomba would be interested in working in their space, or licensing some of their tech to companies in this space.
My niece was born without legs, and only one arm. She has a wheelchair that can be operated with one hand. It has the 2 metal push bars fitted to one side of the chair. The left bar is connected to the left wheel, the right bar to the right wheel. You can grab both with one hand. By moving both at the same time you go straight, or grab one ring to steer. It works really intuitively.
I believe this one-hand option was custom designed for her use-case (which would be about 30 years ago now), but since then many other people that have both arms tried her chair, and immediately contacted the manufacturer to order a chair with the one-hand option. AFAIK the manufacturer now offers the one-hand option on all their chairs.
Other 'obvious' design improvements that seem to be missing:
* Wheel-assist - an electric motor pushes along with you to stop you getting tired arms, but still give you the feeling of direct control you don't get with a typical joystick controlled electric. Little 100 watt brushless motors with controllers are only $3 now, and that would be plenty of assistance for going up ramps.
* Auto brakes - a sensor brakes the wheels whenever a hand isn't touching the rim of the wheel - and that can be a software only feature enabled by the above assistance motor...
Etc... It seems wheelchairs are crazy expensive yet don't have most of the features an undergrad student would build as a 'for fun' project.
Auto brakes as you describe would be really annoying since it would make the alternate-hand technique impossible, and most wheelchair users stop touching the rims between strokes. (I use the handrim grip favored by quadriplegics because of my arms, so I so keep my hands on the rims at all times, but it's not ideal.)
I agree that disability aids are quite overpriced and lackluster in general, but I love my Yamaha wheels.
This devise has a lot of potential uses. I bet we will see these in resturants.
Prices for the machines will be $1500 upfront with 36-month payment plants.
That’s $99 a month for Caddie and $149 a month for Retriever, giving total costs of $5,000 and $6,800 for the two machines.
My mom works as a PSW and I showed her this, she mentioned there's a large number of people not quite at the point of needing an in-home person where this could fill a lot of roles.
The video is quite excellent by being simple (designated rooms + designated trays/table areas + follow me + Alexa integration) and showing practical examples.
I've started to think of "OXO" as a general design principle: design for elderly or otherwise challenged folk turns out to be great for the able-bodied (is that still the right euphemism these days?)
One way to look at it: You know the joke meme "It's Uber for FOO"? Well, I think you can come up with great products by "It's OXO for FOO."
It's OXO for domestic robots.
It's OXO for cars.
It's OXO for user interfaces.
It's OXO for banking.
It's OXO for ...
We used Lego Mindstorms in college in a robotics course, because it offered the best value among such kits.
"Labrador is named after João Fernandes Lavrador, a Portuguese explorer who sailed along the coasts of the Peninsula in 1498–99. Lavrador in Portuguese means 'farmer' (cognate with 'labourer')."
Then I'm thinking, what if everything in my house was on wheels? Reminders me of those super modular homes that you sometimes see on YouTube where everything is a transformer (bed comes desk, table becomes chair, bookshelf becomes toilet , etc.) or folds away.