Back on his feet with robot Rex
By NICK KRAUSE - The Dominion Post
16 July 2010
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Inspired by Hollywood sci-fi and made in New Zealand, the world's first robotic legs may have already secured interest from the United States military.
Unveiled yesterday with a demonstration by a 23-year-old who had been told he would never walk again, the invention is expected to reap millions of dollars in sales each month.
Hayden Allen, who has been in a wheelchair since injuring his spinal cord in a motorcycle accident five years ago, said there was no better feeling than putting one foot in front of the other. "People say to me, `look up when you're walking' but I can't stop staring down at my feet moving."
Mr Allen, who broke his back in four places and his neck in three places, said the experience was emotional but fantastic.
The seven-year project to build the robotic legs had been shrouded in secrecy until unveiled by Rex Bionics, which said it had cost $10 million and "sweat equity" to develop.
Rex, which stands for robotic exoskeleton, is the brainchild of friends Richard Little and Robert Irving, who went to school together in Scotland 30 years ago.
The joystick-operated unit weighs 38 kilograms and enables a wheelchair user to stand, walk, and go up and down steps and slopes.
Mr Irving, who moved to New Zealand in 1994, two years after Mr Little, has multiple sclerosis and both men's mothers are in wheelchairs.
Mr Little said they were both "Kiwis by choice", and had taken the project step by step. "We've got this attitude that you can get things done here, even though there was a lot of doom and gloom about being able to build Rex in New Zealand."
Mr Allen said he would never forget what it was like to see his feet walking under him the first time he used Rex.
A bonus would be getting into his girlfriend's house, which has five stairs. "It will be nice not to bum my way up."
While the legs look – and sound – like something from the 1987 movie Robocop, the inspiration came from 1986's Aliens, in which Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) climbs into a robotic exoskeleton to fight an alien on her spaceship.
Mr Little said they drew the concept on the back of a beer coaster, and finished their first prototype four years later. "It had wooden feet, and a drainpipe for an arm."
The project is funded by venture capital company No 8 Ventures, whose managing partner, Jenny Morel, is also chief executive of Rex Robotics.
Ad Feedback A Rex is expected to cost US$150,000 (NZ$208,000) overseas and about NZ$150,000 locally. There was nothing like Rex on the market, she said..
Director Paul Dyson said the company had had many "closed conversations" before the launch.
"The US military alone is thousands, tens of thousands, of people who could benefit from something like this, ex-soldiers and soldiers coming through every month. People have said, `We'll have it'."
The parties were prepared to pay up to US$250,000.
Sales start in New Zealand towards the end of the year and worldwide by mid-2011. Ms Morel said the company believed the market was far larger than it would be able to supply for the next few years.
