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TRIMIS

Unlocking urban barriers for disabled people

Project

STAIRLESS - Unlocking urban barriers for disabled people


Funding origin:
European
European Union
STRIA Roadmaps:
Transport electrification (ELT)
Transport electrification
Vehicle design and manufacturing (VDM)
Vehicle design and manufacturing
Transport mode:
Road
Road
Transport sectors:
Passenger transport
Passenger transport
Duration:
Start date: 01/06/2016,
End date: 01/09/2016

Status: Finished
Funding details:
Total cost:
€71 429
EU Contribution:
€50 000

Overview

Objectives:

The STAIRLESS project aims to develop and commercialise the first electric wheelchair capable of climbing stairs and all kind of architectural barriers, thus representing an enormous step for the autonomy and independence of people with reduced mobility and positioning our company STUDIOEMME as the first company to market such a solution.

Its uniquely engineered design, with sensors to verify the surroundings of the wheelchair and identify possible obstacles, together with its unique combination of wheels and caterpillars provides the user with complete autonomy to overcome architectural barriers in a safe and comfortable way.

The STAIRLESS project will represent a quantum step for our company, as through it we expect to multiply by 4 our current revenues in the first five years of commercialization (up to €5.7 million), achieving profits of €2.2 million with a Return of Investment of 2.37. Moreover, it will allow us to create further jobs (by increasing our staff from 11 to 19 people) and boost the growth of our company within a sector in which we have a very limited presence: that of medical devices.

STAIRLESS will also imply a significant impact in the wheelchair industry as current manufacturers will have to compete with our innovative product. Our target price, of €17,000, is well inside the price range handled by high quality powered wheelchair manufacturers (6,000-30,000€). Furthermore, our STAIRLESS wheelchair will provoke a major impact on the rest of the competitors who will probably start working on replicating our stair climbing capability in their own models. More importantly for us, thousands of wheelchair users will finally have a breakthrough solution that gives them complete autonomy of movement in any environment- indoors or outdoors, without any help or assistance.

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