This Wheelchair User Was Just Awarded $41.5 Million to Design the Power Wheelchair of the Future
November 18, 2025
Seth McBride
As the director of the Human Engineering Research Labs at the University of Pittsburgh, Rory Cooper has been at the forefront of designing new mobility technologies — including everything from affordable manual wheelchairs inspired by the Japanese art of kirigami, to force-sensing pushrims and self-leveling power wheelchairs. Now, Cooper and his team at HERL have been awarded $41.5 million to help design the power wheelchair of the future.
“Most powered wheelchairs aren’t designed to overcome many of the common challenges in the real world — and changing the environment to accommodate them is nearly impossible,” says Cooper, a paraplegic and manual wheelchair user. “We need smarter technology that prevents tipping and falling, improves mobility and adds more function such as coordinated mobility and robotic arm manipulation of objects, so people with disabilities can fully participate in everyday life.”
The Robotic Assistive Mobility and Manipulation Platform, as HERL is calling the project, is essentially an advanced power wheelchair capable of safely navigating curbs and other obstacles, combined with an integrated robotic arm that the user can control to perform everyday tasks such as self-care, eating or grasping objects.
In the press conference announcing the award, Cooper described opening a refrigerator door to grab a drink as an example of an everyday task the RAMMP project aims to make easier for people with limited upper-body function. “That is a task that most people would like to be able to perform efficiently, rapidly on their own,” Cooper says. But for some wheelchair users, “even now with the best current technology, it can take 10 to 15 minutes. We want to get that [down to] seconds.”
HERL aims to integrate a variety of technologies into the RAMMP project and is partnering with companies like Kinova, which designs and manufactures robotic arms, and LUCI, which produces sensor-based wheelchair navigation and safety systems. Working with a variety of university and business partners, HERL plans to reimagine how a user can interact with their wheelchair and the world.
“We are redesigning everything from the ground up,” Cooper says. “In terms of the seating system, the base, its robotic arm, the control system, the mechanical design, the operating system — everything will be new.”
Support New MobilityWait! Before you wander off to other parts of the internet, please consider supporting New Mobility. For more than three decades, New Mobility has published groundbreaking content for active wheelchair users. We share practical advice from wheelchair users across the country, review life-changing technology and demand equity in healthcare, travel and all facets of life. But none of this is cheap, easy or profitable. Your support helps us give wheelchair users the resources to build a fulfilling life. |
Would be nice if we could just get the same sort of chairs the REST of the world gets – Dietz, and Sunrise REAR wheel drive, w/ R-net or other USER PROGRAMMABLE controls, with availability of parts and information for Right to Repair support…
I can’t find a US available power chair currently that is anywhere near as good… Why are we a 3rd world country in terms of access to GOOD chairs?
There is the iBOT..
Power chairs all have seat heights too high, so that access under tables are impossible, picking things up from the floor, higher CofG, vans need lower floor drops, affecting clearance. As a manual used (C6 quadriplegic), for 48 years and now 69, I’m going to need a power chair soon. Have power add-on ZX-1, but that is not suitable for driving from and transfers are getting very hard and slow, for me. Putting a lock pin under a rigid sports frame doesn’t sound great, to me, but for independence, straps are no solution. Without the need for heavy, bulky Pb batteries, with new tech now coming out (other than Lithium) now, can we have a frame with more functional lower seat heights?
Hey Cory, I was an Aussie friend of Colin McLaurin, your mentor, back in 1981. We were brain-storming with his CofG frame concepts. I eventually built power-chair concepts using some of those ideas.
Good morning! You stole my thunder! I thought i was the oldes/longest living non dead C-6 quad….🙄. Driving from a wheelchair is tricky, too bad there are no tie-downs that are not increasing the weight of a manual chair……Not easy to also protect your back and neck when driving from a manual chair…..Stay well!👊🏻☮️
C-4/5 here for 53 years age 63. I hope this project is fruitful with a power chair that has more benefits and is reliable.
This might be a stupid question…..Have you tried transferring on a 6-way power seat base in a van? I had to switch to a van, car was no longer an option, by lowering the driver seat below my chair going in and higher going back to the wheelchair is a decent option for me (for now). Also doing the transfer inside the vehicle during winter or when it’s raining definitely helps!
I agree with you I just recently had to go from a manual chair to a power chair. It’s a lot easier to get around, but I miss my manual chair terribly because of everything you mentioned. It’s harder to get under tables and be comfortable and it’s very challenging to pick things up off the floor.
There is the Balder
You totally nailed all of my biggest power chair gripes!! I refuse to get a pin under my chair that limits my ability to go over a 2 inch threshold. There have to be better ways to lock ones self into a van. Having disabled people as designers, architects is critical.
I wish someone would contemplate creating a simple wheel self- cleaning mechanism, especially for a heavy power chair! I never hear it even mentioned. But living in ice and snow or muddy rain can be a nightmare.
Rory, if you are monitoring these comments, I’d also like to point out the advantages of having sufficient ground clearance (to avoid hang-ups) AND suggest that in conjunction make the lock-in pin on the underside of the chair retractable; done to lock into EZLOCK and up for added clearance.
Bill
Agreed! C6 here for 46 years and started using power chair are ruining both shoulders a few years ago. These chairs have so much power, the pin can be dangerous when catching on things. I have the opposite problem being 6’6” – foot rests too low to the ground so leaning back to moves hits objects behind me.
As an independent 66 year old C-6,7 quad for the last 43 years, I worry about slipping below the threshold of independence as I age. Equipment becomes much more important in keeping us in the game. A chair designed to integrate with a vehicle to minimize time spent loading and unloading after parking would be so welcome!
I would love to see a wheelchair that has true suspension has current motorized wheelchairs have main drive reels that have no suspension so every bump is not only felt but actually throws the driver around.
What I would give to roll across cobble stones, uneven sidewalk, and bad street/gutter/driveways without feeling EVERYTHING Iroll over. I’d love a suspension like the mountain bikes I used to ride.
With a battery life that would allow me to keep pace with my partner on paved bike trails.
I want user programmable controllers and they should be able to display texts and other things that people with smart watches see! I don’t need a huge speed dial or image on the screen. And I need to be able to change or silence the honk and on/off sounds. And have a dark mode for sitting in a theatre for example while still being able to adjust my position without putting on a light show and getting night blind