Italian 'robot' wheelchair enables disabled to move upright

(ANSA) - Rome, December 12 - An new Italian designed 'robot wheelchair' that was presented in Rome on Tuesday makes it possible for disabled people to move around in an upright position, making their daily activities easier and safer.
    The prototype, called RISE (Robotic Innovation for Standing and Enabling), is ready, the application for a European patent has been made and the innovative system should be on sale late on 2018. The system moves like a vehicle operated by remote control and can change form like a 'transformer'.
    It was development by Volterra motorial rehabilitation centre of Italian workplace accidents insurance agency INAIL and Pisa's Scuola superiore Sant'Anna. "It is a model of social bio-robotics, applied to the rehabilitation of people who have suffered a serious accident," said Maria Chiara Carrozza, a former education minister, of the Scuola Sant'Anna.