Reimagining rehabilitation
Photo courtesy of Owen Kent and Todd Roberts
With a little serendipity and lots of grit, alumni Todd Roberts (MEng’20 ME) and Owen Kent (B.A.’17 Film) turned an idea into a product that makes a difference. The pair first developed Reflex, their robotic rehabilitation device, at UC Berkeley. Now, six years later, they’re launching it through their company, ATDev, which aims to bring high-quality rehabilitation into the home.
The two met when Roberts responded to Kent’s Craigslist post advertising a room for rent. They became fast friends and, once classes started, realized they were both in Designing for the Human Body, a biomechanics course taught by mechanical engineering professor Grace O’Connell.
Kent, a class mentor and lifelong wheelchair user, first proposed the idea for Reflex. “I had recently gotten a robotic arm attached to my wheelchair, and I was noticing that I was using it to reposition my body, which I couldn’t otherwise do,” he said. “I pitched the idea of trying to use lightweight, wearable robots to do daily physical therapy.”
O’Connell’s class provided the perfect environment to pursue this idea together. “Grace had in place a mentorship program where students worked on a semester-long project,” Roberts said. “During the fall semester, my student team and our mentor, Owen, did the initial research, then Grace helped our group set up an independent study for the spring semester. Afterward, we applied for a small grant from the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation and were awarded $3,000 to build some prototypes that spring.”
Kent and Roberts’ efforts led to the creation of Reflex, a device that looks like a knee brace with a robotic motor attached to it. Patients are individually fitted for the device, which is then delivered to their home. In accordance with the treatment plan, Reflex can apply either supportive forces that move the patient’s leg back and forth to restore range of motion, or resistive forces to build quadricep and hamstring strength. While in use, the device is collecting patient data that is then sent to the patient’s care team, so they can remotely monitor and update parameters.
“Through this closed loop telehealth experience, the patient’s care team can determine whether they are meeting their goals and make recommendations, including returning to a clinic for more care,” said Roberts. “Owen’s original idea was to make physical therapy more accessible through low-cost, lightweight robotics. And that’s effectively what Reflex does.”
After they incorporated, O’Connell helped guide them through the grant writing process and connected them with the NSF I-Corps program, which awarded Kent and Roberts their first federal grant. The Haas School of Business offered free office hours, including legal counsel. In addition, Berkeley SkyDeck provided advising and networking opportunities, then wrote them a check for $200,000, their first-ever venture investment.
“That gave us some actual runway and helped us transition in the first 2 ½ years,” said Roberts.
Once Reflex received FDA approval last year, Kent and Roberts registered their product and began sales. They are now shipping the device to Veterans Affairs hospitals and private physical therapy clinics, and, with additional funding, plan to refine the design for mass production. They also hope to explore other applications, including use of the device in rehabilitation for neuromuscular conditions such as stroke recovery.
Learn more: Berkeley alums develop at-home robotic rehabilitation device