26 Feb Toyota Startup Awards
Toyota’s campaign “Start Your Impossible” highlights real-life mobility stories of Olympic and Paralympic athletes as well as everyday athletes who demonstrate the values of humility, hard work and never giving up. Toyota’s “Start Your Impossible” story conveys the message that when you are free to move, anything is possible. Their mission, as ours, is to help people achieve freedom of movement all over the world.
Toyota Motor Europe, together with ISDI Accelerator, is seeking innovative solutions empowering people with mobility limitations to move around more freely and facilitating their daily life. In this regard, they launched the 1 st edition of Toyota Startup Awards to find the most innovative solutions. The challenge is focused on three verticals: social inclusive mobility, accessibility, and disruptive mobility.
They received 195 applications from over 45 countries and selected 8 startups to pitch at the Finals, which was held in Attico Tarradellas in Barcelona on 25 February. ABLE Human Motion was selected as one of the 8 finalists, together with 4blind (Russia), Loro (US), MotorSkins (Germany), ProsFit (Bulgaria), Seamless Vision (Israel), SociAbility (UK) and Wheeliz (France).
Alfons Carnicero (ABLE Human Motion co-founder and CEO) together with Ivan Camps (ABLE’s exoskeleton Pilot), presented our lightweight and easy-to-use exoskeleton, which aims to be a game-changer in medical exoskeleton industry, enabling a continuum of care for the assistance and rehabilitation of people with paraplegia.
During the event, we had the opportunity to listen to the inspirational stories of Ilaria Naef, WCMX (Wheelchair Motocross) athlete, and Birgit Skarstein, 3x Paralympian, 4x World Rowing Champion, Nordic Skiing World Cup Winner, who shared their experiences with the audience.
After the pitching session, Birgit Skarstein, who had a spinal cord injury in 2009 that prevents her from walking, challenged herself to use ABLE exoskeleton for the first time. After a brief explanation, she was able to stand up from the wheelchair and walk again autonomously, demonstrating the potential of our technology to enable mobility for all.
“There were many people watching and suddenly I was as tall as everyone.”
Birgit Skarstein (Norwegian Paralympic athlete) shares her sensation using the ABLE exoskeleton.
At ABLE Human Motion we work to democratize access to robotic rehabilitation tools, both in clinical institutions and at home, where it has the potential to increase the quality of life of people with disabilities by enabling them to move more independently.
At the end of the event, the four winners of this first edition were announced: ProsFit, Seamless Vision, SociAbility and Wheeliz. ABLE Human Motion received a special mention and has also been granted access to the Toyota Accelerator Program. Over 3,000 people participated in public voting, after which an expert jury composed of both Toyota executives and ISDI Accelerator took the final decision. Congratulations to all those amazing projects, and specially to the winners, your ideas are going to have a huge impact in many people’s lives!
Watch the complete event here: https://youtu.be/cP9lk3nfSjo
