In his new lab space in Shoreline the founder of the nonprofit medical research organization They Shall Walk envisions a world where everyone can walk freely.
Eventually, Monty Reed hopes to design a robot- powered brace called the LIFESUIT that would help paraplegics walk.
“We’re pretty excited about what we’ve been able to do,” Reed said.
It takes him no more than three minutes to strap himself into Prototype 14. Built of steel, aluminum, and plastic materials, the 75 pound suit is powered by compressed air and can help the wearer ascend and descend stairs and move at a pace of 2.5 mph. His hands control triggers used to help him determine the size of his step as the prototype moves his legs and helps him walk.
“The goal is to make it something that would be lightweight and easy for a paralyzed person to use,” he said.
Reed, 42, began envisioning prototypes in 1986 after he broke his back in a parachute accident. While in the hospital, Reed said he read Robert Heinlein’s book Starship Troopers.
“I like to give Heinlein credit for inventing the robotic suit,” Reed said. “I just refined it … in the book he describes a suit that allows people to carry 2,000 pounds of equipment … I started doing sketches and looking at how you would build such a thing.”
Reed said his anti-fans, or those who believe a LIFESUIT cannot be created, give him further ideas. Each of Reed’s prototypes has been designed to answer specific questions and reach specific goals. With prototype 12 in 2005 Reed entered the St. Patrick’s Day Dash in Seattle.
Though some people told him he would not complete the 3-mile event, Reed crossed the finish line in 90 minutes. In June, Prototype 13 was able to lift 205 pounds in the RoboGames held annually in San Francisco.
“There are people who will always hang on and tell you things are impossible and there were people trying to convince me I was wasting my time,” he said.
Reed said he has been contacted by people from all over the world who would benefit from a LIFESUIT and has received inquiries from clinics worldwide interested in working with him when a finished product is complete.
Reed and others will raise money at 11 a.m. on Oct. 27 for the They Shall Walk Organization at the They Shall Walk-a-Thon. The event will begin in the Sears east parking lot on Aurora Avenue North and continue along the Interurban Trail. Registration for the event is $20 and includes a T-shirt.
Future work surrounding Prototype 15 will focus on making a suit that balances and moves on its own. The prototype will be have to successfully complete a precursor to a medical trial, where it must measure up before patients may use it.
“The device is what I would call a demonstration project,” said Dr. Steven Stiens, a department of rehabilitation medicine associate professor at the University of Washington. “The device could potentially be useful as a passive ranging or as a patterning device to retrain people’s walking patterns after spinal cord injury or stroke or other central nervous system injury.”
Today Reed said he has designs for prototypes up to Prototype 21. He knows how he wants the suit to look 20 years from now.
The 75 pound suit with a 40 pound scuba tank would be a nanotech suit, he said, built of such small parts, the suit would be slipped on by its wearer like clothes and used without being seen. In the meantime, Reed said the goal is just to use whatever is currently available in order to have thousands of paralyzed people walking and widespread medical trials by 2010.
“If we have the funding I know we can do it,” Reed said. “If we don’t, then we’ll still do it but it just won’t happen in 2010.”
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