The IBOT is Dead!

[IKE]

I worked for a mobility company (wheelchair accessable vehicles) as my first internship (The Braun Corporation). It was founded by the owner that had personal mobility issues.
While there the most important lesson I saw was sometimes you have to walk in anothers shoes before you can understand. I would ask that members of congress that are going to write policy on what get covered try the alternatives for 2-3 days. The owner of the company I worked at asked another young engineer to pretend for 1 week that his legs were paralized and to use their vehicles and a wheelchair. He gave up after 2 days, and the owner was OK with that because in the two days he had experienced what it was like.

This saddens me because the wrong problem was solved with this resolution. The problem was that the device was too expensive for insurance/government to afford. Their solution was to not cover it. The real solution should have looked into what it takes to get the iBOT from $22K to $10K. I am sure the makers knew what the required volume would be.

This spells bad knews for the Luke Arm. An interesting protest would be to see a march with persons with their arms tied requesting that Congress do the same for a day or two before legislating life changing device...

[KarenH]

The economics of the IBOT is something like this:

Initially, reports said it would cost around $29,000. If they got it down to $22,000, that's a tremendous price drop! The other thing is that retrofitting a house for a standard wheelchair can cost as much as the IBOT--but I suppose Medicare doesn't pay for housing retrofits.

Here in California, I'm seeing more and more homes (in fact, most homes being built these days) that have stairs, and no elevators. When I was a kid, most houses here were one story and had just a few steps up to the front door--but even those would be impossible for a regular wheelchair. As the population ages, and more people have trouble getting around, this is going to be a huge problem.

So I hope that they keep the tooling and design for the IBOT, and will be ready to resume production (maybe of a cheaper, even better version) when things change.

The other thing to keep in mind-- If Congress and Medicare are this bad now, just think what it'll be like if the U.S. gets nationalized health care!

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by KarenH

The other thing to keep in mind-- If Congress and Medicare are this bad now, just think what it'll be like if the U.S. gets nationalized health care!

I really don't want to get into a political debate about national healthcare, but I don't think private insurance covers the iBOT either.

[Marc P.]

Originally Posted by KarenH

The other thing to keep in mind-- If Congress and Medicare are this bad now, just think what it'll be like if the U.S. gets nationalized health care!

I'm sure Congress is well aware of the benefits something like the iBOT provides people with disabilities. Rhode Island congressman Jim Langevin has come to the Boston regional a few times to sing it's praises, and always delivers an inspirational speech about how technology and engineers make lives better through innovation.



The real challenge is making these innovations more accessible to a wider range of people. When the first computers were built, they took up hundreds of square feet, and were only capable of a few specialized tasks. They also carried a hefty price tag, and were only predicted to become larger and more expensive over time. To quote Professor Frink from The Simpsons- "within 100 years, computers will be twice as powerful, ten thousand times larger, and so expensive that only the five richest kings of Europe will own them. M-huy."

As I get ready to leave for work, I put my iPhone in my pocket and think back to the '50s, '60s, and '70s. I wonder if anyone back then could imagine the possibility of a device hundreds to thousands of times more computationally powerful than the systems running the Apollo spacecraft, in a size smaller than a wallet.

Looking back at how much life has changed over the last 50 years makes me think ahead to the inventions and innovations that are just now making their way out of development, and wonder what the next 50 or 100 years will bring. The iBOT is a fantastic piece of equipment, though prohibitively expensive for many. Material and manufacturing breakthroughs may one day make such things more accessible, just as it did for cars and computers.

[IKE]

You know, the two main functions that everyone sites are its ability to climb stairs, and its ability to "stand up". While I am sure it was capable of much more, sometimes the extras aren't worth the cost. If given the constraints of climbing a random set of stairs, and having a "Stand" mode that raise the occupant to eye level, What would you design?

I would love to see part of this years challenge be to carry a 200 lb payload up a flight of steps.

[artdutra04]

In the long run, it's a better solution to retrofit older commercial and industrial buildings and bring them up ADA compliant standards, as that attacks the cause of the problem. Eliminate the cause, and there are no effects. But as ADA only applies to new [re]construction, it will be a while before replacement by attrition brings the majority of grandfathered buildings up to code. Add onto that the fact that ADA only applies to the United States, the potential for the iBOT to bring about positive impact on the world is still quite large. Unfortunately the steep price tag doomed it.

It's like [photovoltaic] solar power. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of people (except for the coal and oil industry barons) have no doubts about its positive impacts on electricity generation with respect to environmental sustainability and energy independence. But up until recently, the high price per kWh has doomed the technology to niche status. Now as of late, recent improvements at both ends of the spectrum - either making solar power cheaper or building higher output panels - have brought the technology closer to widespread adoption. Once the price is right, you'll see solar capturing technology on every roof outside of Seattle.

Unfortunately, it's the revolutionary technology - the ones that run full speed, blazing a new path to the future - that often proves to be the martyr, to go out in a blaze of glory. They were too much, too soon, too before their time. We can only hope someone, maybe not necessary DEKA, will pick up the pieces, and as economic feasibility allows, continue adding the technology Frankenstein-like into existing technology, as the world constantly marches forward to the drumbeat of progress. It may be a while, but someday we will have another iBOT. Maybe not in name, but in the spirit of the technology developed at DEKA. (Kind of like how the first major wave of electric cars in the 1990s, such as the GM EV1, were killed paved the way for a more sustainable second wave of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicles beginning to sweep the market today.)

[Madison]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Once the price is right, you'll see solar capturing technology on every roof outside of Seattle.

http://www.seattle.gov/light/solar/