Stair-climbing wheelchair

The iBOT is a powered wheelchair developed by Dean Kamen in a partnership between DEKA and Johnson and Johnson's Independence Technology division. Development of the iBOT started in 1990 with the first working prototypes available in 1992 and then in late 1994, DEKA signed a deal with Johnson & Johnson to manufacture the unit, with Johnson & Johnson paying for all subsequent R&D with DEKA receiving a smaller royalty fee than they normally would in return for their retaining rights to all non-medical applications of the technology. The iBOT was revealed to the public on Dateline NBC in a segment by John Hockenberry on June 30, 1999. By this time, Johnson & Johnson had already spent US$50,000,000 on the project. The iBOT entered clinical trials in 1999, with FDA approval arriving four years after the reveal on August 13, 2003. During development the iBot was nicknamed Fred after Fred Astaire. The Segway PT, which was the result of the non-medical product development was nicknamed Ginger (after Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire's dance partner) was released in 2001. Starting in 2009, the iBOT was no longer available for sale from Independence Technology, but support for existing units was available until the end of 2013. Production was discontinued for cost reasons; only a few hundred were sold per year at a retail price of about $25,000, and Medicare paid $5000. In 2011, Dean Kamen, the inventor of the iBOT, stated his support of America's Huey 091 Foundation's effort to reinstate iBOT production. In late 2014, Kamen announced that the FDA had reclassified the iBOT from a Class III to a Class II medical device. This lowering of regulatory controls will allow DEKA to revive the long dormant iBOT and immediately start building a next generation product. Kamen said the model would be out in “less than two years' and would be available initially to wounded veterans. In 2016, Toyota and DEKA formed a partnership to produce a new version of the iBOT.