Unhindr, a start-up, has won £500,000 in Innovate UK funding to grow and scale its adaptable AI prosthetic device.

In collaboration with the Guder Research Group of Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, and the Manufacturing Technology Centre, Unhindr is set to grow the scalability and manufacturing capacity of its wearable prosthetic device.

Addressing the issue of inflexible prothesis, Unhindr's CEO, Ugur Tanriverdi, along with co-founder and chief scientific officer, Fırat Güder, and chief technology officer, Guglielmo Senesi, are developing Roliner, a wearable sleeve that uses an AI algorithm to adapt to a person's fitting needs throughout the day.

The technology is being developed with a team of amputee advisors to help deliver a comfortable prosthesis and is supported by clinical research led by Dr. Joseph Shalhoub, a vascular surgeon at St Mary's Hospital and honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College London.

Tanriverdi said: "Roliner will help amputees walk for longer and reduce their appointments to clinics for fitting adjustments, as well as save both time and money for patients and healthcare systems.

"Patients are always involved in every step of the design. We show amputees the Roliner prototypes for feedback along the way, as and when we make minor changes to the technology, and even in the early stages of the prototype, the feedback we have received is amazing." 

With the support of EIT Health, Unhindr was able to considerably decrease the size of its initial prototypes, collaborating with GE Healthcare, Cap Digital, and Imperial College London to develop a palm-sized portable device to ensure its user-friendliness. The progress made has attracted further interest, including the London Mayor's Entrepreneur Programme Health Award. 

On the back of this latest round of support, a new product engineer, Tarek Asfour, has joined the team to help bring the wearable sleeve to the market.

Tanriverdi added: "This multi-disciplinary industrial research project will focus on the market readiness of the prototype in relation to the scalability of manufacturing.”

This partnership coincides with Unhindr's plans to collaborate with Aachen University in Germany on the clinical development of Roliner.