- Four years ago,
Ellie was confined to a wheelchair.
But today, she's walked over 25,000 steps.
Cerebral palsy is a condition
that leaves many children unable to walk.
And unfortunately, the neuro-rehabilitation industry
is designed around adults,
leaving children as an afterthought.
- When I found out that my nephew, Praneit, was diagnosed
with cerebral palsy, we said,
“Why don't we buy him some sort of robotic system
that can help him walk?”
Pretty soon realized
that there's just nothing out there for kids.
But everybody wants to see their kids walk.
I realized that as a mechatronics engineer,
I'm probably the best person to build something for Praneit.
- What started as a project to help his nephew,
turned into a business with a mission to rethink the process
of innovation in the neuro-rehabilitation industry.
- The health system is very reactive and not proactive.
We said, “There has to be a better way.”
People told us, “You guys are crazy.”
But we just, we didn't really care about that.
That sense just kept us going.
- This is a show about founders challenging the status quo.
- People don't really understand
how much kids walk on a daily basis.
It's around like 15,000 steps, a few miles a day.
But cerebral palsy is the most common
physical disability among children.
It's a neurological condition.
And in many cases,
it means that children lose the ability to walk.
When kids are not walking, your bones are growing,
but your muscles aren't growing at the same rate.
There's reduced blood flow, reduced bone density,
reduced kidney function.
It's a long, nasty list.
You know, they say sitting eight hours a day
at your desk is bad for your health.
Imagine how bad it is for a child spending their entire life
in the wheelchair.
- After his nephew Praneit was diagnosed with cerebral palsy,
Manmeet, and his friend, Rahul,
teamed up to build Praneit a robot to help him walk.
- We were a little naive, thinking that we'll just be able
to build it in a couple of months, and that's it.
Had we known how difficult it would be,
it would probably be a different story.
But we put it together, flew to India for the summer.
And it's finally, you know, time to try it out with Praneit.
We get him in the device and pretty soon realized this is,
this is not gonna work.
There is some issues with the design.
It's just not powerful enough.
And that was pretty—
felt pretty defeated at the time because
he didn't even move.
- But Manmeet and Rahul kept working.
The following day, they made some adjustments
and actually got Praneit to walk elevated in the air.
- It was a great experience; it was a great moment.
Around that time, we started getting some interest
from other families.
We realized that this is something
that families all over the world are interested in.
And that's where we decided to start Trexo Robotics.
The way the Trexo works is it consists of a pair of robotic legs
that attach onto the gait-trainer.
And the whole device is controlled
through a tablet interface.
So you can actually design a unique gait-pattern
for every child.
- Traditional medical device companies
usually start in research labs,
and then move on to clinical trials.
- So we started down that path, but in a research setting,
you can't really have the maximum impact because
there's only so many children that you can help walk
when you have a device in a lab.
While we were talking to all these hospitals,
they just weren't moving fast enough.
We would have families knocking on our door
and asking about a Trexo for their child.
We soon realized that the best way
to have the maximum impact is
by building a profitable business out of this.
You know, we spoke to so many people who said,
“This is not really a business idea,
this is a research project.”
These are things that entire research labs
are dedicated for
because there's a lot of complex challenges
in the open world.
We didn't really care about that.
All we wanted to build was a device
that can help kids walk every day at home.
- That focused objective
helped them build a device safe enough
to get an FDA exemption from clinical trials,
allowing them to get the Trexo into the
hands of families immediately.
- Seeing Jaroslav taking those first few steps,
it was magical.
Jaroslav has been using Trexo for three to four months.
Up to date, he made about 10,000 steps, which is like
incredible because he was supposed to make zero.
- And as kids continued to walk in their devices, over time,
they started to experience some surprising health benefits.
- We got the Trexo for Mitchell in May of 2020,
and he's been using it pretty much daily ever since.
My son went from pureed foods
to gaining strength in his head and his neck,
and postural support, and now he eats solid foods.
- It's been really interesting to see because
now that we've started,
you know, launching the home product,
and these families started using this in home settings,
now, we're seeing the opposite effect
where a lot of clinics and hospitals,
after looking at the technology,
are now really interested in getting
this in their facility as well.
So now, the Trexo is being used by some
of the top hospitals in North America.
We launched in the middle of 2019,
and we've been pretty much sold-out since then.
- Trexo developed the first at-home
wearable robot for kids
and like most new, innovative technologies,
the price tag is pretty steep.
- The technology's really expensive.
It's $35,000.
You know, our goal is to make this available
for every child who wishes to walk.
And the way we're gonna do that is by showing
the long-term benefits of this technology
to insurance companies, so that they can make it
accessible for every child.
- Through Trexo, Manmeet and Rahul
are showing that with skills and determination,
ordinary people can see a problem and persist to fix it.
Manmeet's dream of getting his nephew to walk
has now enabled thousands of kids to take their first steps
and ultimately improve their quality of life.
- There's nothing miraculous about the product.
It's just that once you enable walking again,
you start to see some amazing benefits
and changes as a result.
You're going to have to look towards technological solutions
to solve some of these problems
that are global in nature.
That's the type of world that we wanna see
where you have robotic systems that can help people walk,
help improve their lives.
As an engineer, this is what you do.
You know, you build something that can improve lives
and improve circumstances for all the walks of life.