Inventor wins $1m prize for wheelchair
A Scottish innovator who vowed to revolutionise the wheelchair as a teenager has won $1 mill ion to make his dream a reality.
Andrew Slorance, 51, from Nairn, saw off competition from the US, Japan and Italy to win Toyota's Mobility Unlimited Challenge with his Phoenix i wheelchair. The intelligent chair automatically adjusts its centre of gravity to ensure the user can be agile and stable at the same time.
The competition, from the Toyota Mobility Foundation and Nest a Challenges, was launched in 2017 in an effort to encourage innovation in assist ive technologies for those with lower-limb paralysis.
Efforts from other finalists included a smart wear able simulator that uses artificial intelligence to support muscles at the right time, while
exoskeleton technology was exhibited in a number of entries.
Mr Slorance broke his back when he was 14 after falling from a tree. He said his early experience motivated him to one day make the wheelchair a more desirable item.
"I remember lying in the hospital bed in Aberdeen and an occupational therapist came in and she wheeled a wheelchair up to my bed,"
Mr Slorance said. "She said, ‘Andrew, I' ve got your new wheelchair for you. I hope you will agree it's rather a nice example’.
"I looked at this thing and I thought: 'You've got to be kidding, right ?' The first day I went out in that wheelchair was without doubt the worst day of my life.
"I felt completely immobilised because the thing was so big ... I suddenly realised eve -
rybody was looking at me in a way people had never looked at me before.
"Fairly soon after that I swore that, if no one else did it, one day I would revolutionise the wheelchair.”
The Phoenix i's ultra-light carbon fibre frame aids manoeuvrability, while the chair features a powered braking system which detects when the user is going downhill, managing the descent
automatically. Five awards of $500,000 were given to finalists in January to develop their prototypes, while the $1 million that Phoenix Instinct has secured will go towards bringing the company's innovation to market.
"I nearly didn't do it," said Mr Slorance of the competition. "I just thought 'I haven't got a chance in this, a little company in the north of Scotland'.
"And I thought ,’ No, this i s
what you do, Andrew, you have to do this’.
"Your wheelchair is the world's first perception of you. If that thing looks awesome and hi-tech, that puts forward a positive perception. We live in a time when our fridge freezer can be smart. Yet the wheelchair is the thing you need every day of your life and it's still got the technology from 1984."