From a “kart sharing” system for people with motor disabilities designed by an Italian company to a “chairless” wheelchair: meet the finalists of the future mobility competition funded by the Japanese carmaker.
Incentivising technological research aimed at improving the mobility of people with lower-limb paralysis: this is the goal of the Mobility Unlimited Challenge, the competition funded by Toyota Foundation together with the Nesta Challenge Prize Center, which saw five finalists receive their awards at the CES in Las Vegas on 7 January.
Among the finalists is an Italian company, Italdesign of Turin, specialising in the development of prototypes and new vehicles. Its winning project is called Moby and is a vehicle that enables a sharing mobility service in cities for people with motor disabilities. Moby takes the form of a sort of semi-autonomous electric kart that can be boarded with a wheelchair. It is hired via an app that identifies the nearest available vehicle relative to the user's position, and once the journey is complete, it is returned to the closest docking station.
Moby has received 500,000 dollars from Toyota to develop the project, which aims to incorporate driving assistance systems to help avoid collisions and overcome physical barriers, all with the goal of making urban travel less demanding and safer for people with disabilities. The winner of the competition, to be announced in Tokyo in 2020 (when the Olympic and Paralympic Games, of which Toyota is a sponsor, will be held), will instead receive one million dollars (four million in total made available for the competition by the Japanese carmaker, which has long been personally committed to developing vehicles and solutions to improve people's lives through mobility).
The other projects in the running are the Japanese Qolo, a two-wheeled exoskeleton that allows wheelchair users to move around while standing upright, as it supports the entire body; Evowalk, a device invented in the United States that fits around the leg and uses sensors to stimulate muscle contraction, aiding movement and rehabilitation; from Great Britain, Al Phoenix, an ultralight carbon-fibre wheelchair equipped with smart sensors that adapt to the user's movements; and finally Quix, from the United States, a robotic exoskeleton powered by motors for the hips, knees and ankles, along with additional actuators that provide people with lower-limb paralysis with rapid, stable and agile mobility.
