How Toyota are helping people to walk again

Hospitals in Japan will soon be welcoming robotic machinery to help those with lower-limb paralysis.

Toyota’s Welwalk WW-1000 will begin roll-out in autumn of this year and will be available to rent, but will cost £7,300 upfront as well as a monthly fee of £2,500.

The machinery attaches to the knee of the patient and enables those who have suffered from paralysis to walk again. Due to Japan’s aging population, this could be a crucial step as mobility problems rise and the machinery boasts that it can rehabilitate stroke victims 60% faster than normal physiotherapy.

The Welwalk is in line with a series of Toyota robots, who are being built to perform takes generally undertaken by care workers. Mundane tasks that are encountered with difficulty by those suffering could soon be performed by robotics counterparts as opposed to humans.

However, Toyota’s robot is currently only available in Japan and would have to be modified to cope with the physique of the western world, as the current model only supports 95kg of weight and those shorter than 6’3”.