Order books have opened for a new Toyota assist robot designed to help in the rehabilitation of people suffering from lower-limb paralysis (as a result of strokes or other causes).

The WelWalk WW-200 upgrades the features of the previous WW-1000 model, with ‘rehabilitation support functions’ based on motor learning theory and greater ease of use in clinical environments (www.global.toyota/en).

Specifically, it adds functions that show assistance settings in real time to help improve a patient’s abnormal gait, plus a ‘game’ function that can help motivate patients to persevere with their rehabilitation efforts. Adding these new functions reduces the burden on therapists and gives users more-efficient walking training.

The WW-1000 model was previously provided to medical institutions on a rental basis; in light of requests from health-care establishments and market assessments, the WelWalk WW-2000 will be available for purchase. Production will be at Toyota’s Motomachi plant, with a target of 50 unit sales a year.

Toyota has been developing rehabilitation assist robots in collaboration with Fujita Health University in Japan since the end of 2007.

Pilot testing of robots in health-care settings, clinical research and medical institutions began in 2011, and rental of the Welwak WW-1000 — the first Toyota product to be approved as a medical device — began in 2017.

To date, it has been used at around 80 medical institutions in Japan.