Technaid, Leading Motion.
Our goal is to build a bridge between academic research for assistive systems and its potential final users, thus helping patients regain their personal autonomy with assistive products that are commercially available.
Technaid is a Spanish company specialized in developing robotic assistive systems to help improve people’s lives, either B2C (direct to consumer) or B2B (through institutions, research centers, universities or other companies). We partner with national and international research centers and use the resulting state-of-the-art know-how to manufacture exclusive products and make them commercially available with a short go-to-market span.
We currently focus on two areas: First, we manufacture inertial technology devices: from motion sensors to systems that capture and analyze human biomechanics. Second, we develop robotic exoskeletons for research in mobility rehabilitation and in robotic control applied to human biomechanics.
History
Technaid was founded in 2004 as a technology-based spin-off by the Bioengineering group of the Spanish Council for Higher Scientific Research (CSIC) (currently Neurorehabilitation Group). We commercially launched our first product, the Tech-Filter, in 2005. The Tech-Filter is an electronic device that, connected between the computer and the mouse, allows patients with tremor in upper extremities to improve the control of the pointer. The device filters the involuntary tremor, either from elderly people or tremor generated by diseases such as Parkinson’s or Multiple Sclerosis. Upon its launch, the Tech-Filter won the “Infanta Cristina Award”, granted by the IMSERSO [National Elderly and Social Affairs] Foundation.
In 2007, Technaid started a new business line to develop systems to record and analyze human movement using inertial technology. This technology is an alternative to traditional camera-based motion capture systems. Inertial movement capture systems such as Tech-MCS are more versatile, easier to carry and have a lower price than previous systems. Due to this, they have now become widespread among companies and institutions that deal with human biomechanics, sports performance, and even 3D characters’ generation for movies, video games or virtual reality applications.
In 2013, Technaid launched the H1 exoskeleton, becoming the first Spanish and European company to commercialize a robotic device specifically created for the research of gait rehabilitation. This device was developed within the Spanish national research project “HYPER”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation within the CONSOLIDER-INGENIO program. Technaid has been responsible for the commercial design, manufacture and distribution of the system, now Exo-H3, both nationally and internationally.