Grant: Idea to Innovation

Early mobilization of patients after an intensive surgery, stroke, or other neural illness is an important factor in their successful recovery. Evidence shows that simple practices early on can reduce the hospitalization days as a major healthcare cost. With the high chance of falls and intensive staff requirements, majority of the eligible North American patients do not receive this simple therapy. A new robotic technology, called GaitEnable (GE), has been invented at Carleton University's Advanced Biomechatronics and Locomotion (ABL) laboratory, which can address the main issues faced by the early mobilization practice, in that it lowers the risk of fall, risk of staff injury, and the number of required staff. GaitEnable, based on its mobile robotic omni-directional base and active fall prevention, is expected to impact the early mobilization (EM) and the gait rehabilitation (GR) practice, each with over 5,000,000 patients in North America. This project aims at closing the gap between the current state of the GE technology and a pre-commercial technology by addressing the technical challenges left to adapt to the application requirements and also by optimizing and improving various components of the technology. The proposed research and development project includes optimizing the mechatronics design of the system, adding new modules for body weight support and bed transfer, enhancing the controller and fall prevention capabilities, conducting tests, and documenting the results as required by Health Canada, FDA, and CE certification processes. A patent has been filed for a provisional U.S. application and a spin-off company is expected to be established upon completion of the new prototype. This technology fills a gap in a large and rapidly growing market and is expected to be initially adopted by major surgical hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, research centres, and later on by the skilled nursing facilities or larger clinics.