Roboligent announces its selection by AFWERX for a Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I award. This Phase I grant will give us the opportunity to explore how our rehabilitation robot can improve outcomes for military rehabilitation. AFWERX’s STTR program provides a launchpad for small businesses like ours to enter the U.S. Military market. Roboligent’s solution features a unique degrees of freedom (7 DOF) robot, offering force-controlled, dynamically interactive, and safe motion-based therapies in a full 6D motional space. This novel design automates physical therapy, helping patients with neuromuscular problems, injuries, or impairments regain essential strength, range of motion, and functionality.
“We believe that our human-interactive rehabilitation robots will help improve the quality of care for the Air Force Medical Service,” said Roboligent’s CEO, Dr. Bongsu Kim. “By enabling upper and lower-body rehabilitation with a single rehabilitation robot, we will be able to significantly reduce costs and provide more effective treatment by helping patients learn their movement patterns and strength, adapt to their condition, and safely perform repetitive exercise therapy.”
The Air Force Research Laboratory and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) process by accelerating the small business experience through faster proposal to award timelines, changing the pool of potential applicants by expanding opportunities to small business and eliminating bureaucratic overhead by continually implementing process improvement changes in contract execution. The DAF began offering the Open Topic SBIR/STTR program in 2018 which expanded the range of innovations the DAF funded and now Roboligent will start its journey to create and provide innovative capabilities that will strengthen the national defense of the United States of America.
“The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.”
About AFRL
The Air Force Research Laboratory is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development, and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace force. With a workforce of more than 12,500 across nine technology areas and 40 other operations across the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit afresearchlab.com.
About AFWERX
As the innovation arm of the DAF and a directorate within the Air Force Research Laboratory, AFWERX brings cutting-edge American ingenuity from small businesses and start-ups to address the most pressing challenges of the DAF. AFWERX employs approximately 325 military, civilian and contractor personnel at six hubs and sites executing an annual $1.4 billion budget. Since 2019, AFWERX has executed 4,697 contracts worth more than $2.6 billion to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and drive faster technology transition to operational capability. For more information, visit: afwerx.com.
