iBot (electric wheelchair)

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Dean came on the iBot at the White House with President Bill Clinton

The iBot was an electric wheelchair that worked on the principle of dynamic stabilization developed by Dean Kamen . With the help of dynamic stabilization, the iBot was able to negotiate stairs and raise its user at eye level with a standing conversation partner. It was sold in the USA from 2001 to 2009, but was then taken off the market due to poor sales figures. In 2016, Kamen announced that it would develop a new generation of the power wheelchair in collaboration with Toyota .

properties

  • It could be driven like a normal electric wheelchair.
  • It had switchable 4 × 4 wheel drive, which also made it somewhat off-road. It could be driven in sand, gravel, on cobblestones or in water up to 3 "(almost 8 cm) deep.
  • He could take steps and other obstacles such as B. cross a curb with a height of up to 12.7 cm.
  • He had a remote control with which he could be transported via a wheelchair ramp into a vehicle or, if it was unoccupied, out of the movement area of ​​other people.
  • He could be placed in the "balance mode", where he rode like a Segway PT on two wheels. The iBot user was also at eye level with a conversation partner.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the manufacturer ( Memento from September 30, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ iBot's end puts power wheelchair's users in tough spot. Here & Now, December 26, 2011 (accessed December 28, 2015)
  3. ↑ Engadget DE, Felix Knoke: iBot: Toyota brings back Dean Kamen's stair-climbing wheelchair. In: Engadget Germany. Retrieved June 8, 2016 .

Web links