Who & What is Nextek
What:
Nextek Mobility Corporation is developing a power wheelchair technology unlike any the world has ever seen, with capabilities beyond those previously experienced.
How & Why:
Brock Roberts was driving down a freeway on a sunny summer’s day in 1990. His mind, of course, turned to a new steering concept he called parallel all-wheel steering. He parked the car and soon built a plywood prototype of the first PAWS (parallel all wheel steering) power chair.
Brock applied for his first patent in the fall of that same year and concentrated on building more prototypes. Mind you, the first drivable prototype was dubbed “the tractor of the future” and was featured in the Davis, CA Picnic Day Parade.
Three generations of prototype wheelchairs later it became clear that developing a product by working nights on credit card debt was a bit unrealistic.
So in 1995 Nextek Mobility was incorporated in the sunny state of New Mexico. While additional prototypes were built and patents applied for, the search for capital became a focus. In 1998 Nextek was awarded a Phase I SBIR from the National Institutes of Health. (1R43HD34643-01A). Thank you NIH!
Phase II began in 2000. Nextek moved out of a garage, and the PAWS technology has developed rapidly.
With chairs lined up for trials in hospitals throughout Albuquerque, NM, the ten-year dream technology—a top-rated, life-enhancing, fully functional parallel all-wheel steering power chair, is closer than ever to being realized.