Good Thinking

Upstairs, downstairs in Scewo's two-wheel, self-balancing wheelchair

Upstairs, downstairs in Scewo's two-wheel, self-balancing wheelchair
The same mechanisms that allow the Bro to climb enable it to adjust its height to between 45 and 87 cm
The same mechanisms that allow the Bro to climb enable it to adjust its height to between 45 and 87 cm
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The same mechanisms that allow the Bro to climb enable it to adjust its height to between 45 and 87 cm
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The same mechanisms that allow the Bro to climb enable it to adjust its height to between 45 and 87 cm
Scewo co-founder & CEO Bernhard Winter and myself in the Bro, raised up with the lights on
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Scewo co-founder & CEO Bernhard Winter and myself in the Bro, raised up with the lights on
The Bro is controlled with a combination of on-screen options in the app and a physical joystick and buttons
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The Bro is controlled with a combination of on-screen options in the app and a physical joystick and buttons
Steps prove no problem for the Bro
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Steps prove no problem for the Bro
The Bro can raise the height of the user
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The Bro can raise the height of the user
Going down - or possibly up
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Going down - or possibly up
The Bro features a futuristic design
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The Bro features a futuristic design
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The ultimate in assistive mobility, Scewo’s Bro is the only self-balancing wheelchair able to rise up and climb stairs. This two-wheeled personal electric vehicle is delightfully intuitive to maneuver, as I found out first-hand at this year’s CES.

In fact, it was the very first exhibit I went to when the show opened. I had no trouble finding the magenta-adorned Swiss Tech pavilion within Eureka Park – the international innovation bazaar tucked away in the basement of the Venetian Expo. And when I did, I made a beeline for the Scewo (“skeh-vo”) booth, where I was immediately greeted by Bernhard Winter, the company’s CEO & Co-Founder.

Interestingly, he and his fellow co-founders, Thomas Gemperle and Pascal Buholzer, happened upon the design somewhat by accident. “It’s actually a funny story," Winter shared with us on the way to the product demonstration. "We studied mechanical engineering and we wanted to build a robot that can go anywhere. And then we thought, ‘Why not put a seat on top? Then people can go everywhere.’ So we built it, We were actually astonished how little innovation there is in the wheelchair industry.”

Since back in 2017 when the trio was at university in Switzerland, the project has evolved. And now their team of 30 has brought this smart power wheelchair – officially, the Bro Series One – to market in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, with plans to launch in the U.S. in 2025. (No price has been set for the American iteration, but the European version currently sells for roughly US$39,000.)

The Bro is controlled with a combination of on-screen options in the app and a physical joystick and buttons
The Bro is controlled with a combination of on-screen options in the app and a physical joystick and buttons

Apart from the sense of freedom this ingenious chair imparts, what struck me most about it was how comfortable, fun and easy it was. The seat and seatback (among many settings) were both simple to angle and adjust to my liking. The app offered information about speed and the current mode, plus enabled control of the lights and the selection of such key settings as the joystick sensitivity.

With two large wheels, this torso-independent wheelchair can climb up to 30 steps per minute, each with a max height of 20 cm (7.9 in), at a gradient up to 36 degrees. At this point, it almost seems insulting to simply refer to this as a wheelchair. And it can overcome 5-cm (2-in) obstacles in the wild, in case you want to roll through a scenic forest or over other terrain with an uneven surface. If you’re at a store or in a social situation in which extra height would be handy or appropriate, the seat can rise from from 45 to 87 cm (17.7 to 34.2 in).

Scewo Bro at CES 2023

To climb steps, which have to be at least 76 cm (30 in) wide and can’t be a spiral staircase, you need to put the chair into climbing mode, which raises the seat. In my case, I backed up to the stairs, which automatically activated the backup camera view on the paired smartphone screen. Then I just pulled back on the joystick and climbed the few steps that happened to be nearby in the convention hall.

Bro going up stairs

I felt confident and safe going up the stairs. I admittedly felt a little nervous twinge before descending the same few stairs frontwards, but that quickly dissipated once I was on my way. Honestly, my biggest mistake was doing this demo so early in the morning. Needless to say, I thought of the Bro’s smooth ride many times as I continued on to log a leg-wearying 18,419 steps by the end of that busy first CES day.

Bro going down stairs

By comparison, the 162-kg (357-lb) Bro could’ve taken me 25 to 35 km (15 to 22 miles) at a rate up to 10 km/h (6 mph), depending on the battery installed. Of course, I happen to be blessed with the ability to walk. But for those who aren’t, this next-gen transport will be a godsend. As Winter relayed in an email, they named it with a brother in mind, “as a companion that accompanies you on your way and on whom you can always rely.” And with that in mind, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Product page: Scewo

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6 comments
6 comments
Hasler
I remember the praise lavished on the Johnson & Johnson self-balancing wheelchair some decades ago. It was similarly costly and suffered from unpredictable movement is the floor was not level. The Screwo has the advantage of the lighter and smaller lithium batteries and presumably relies on the rubber tracks for accurate steering. It also climbs stairs, though only stairs wider than in most domestic properties. The chair that goes everywhere outdoors needs both length and breath to get sufficient stability. This makes it larger than standard UK doors. And woe betide if your rambling takes you through mud or canine deposits. As a powerchair user, I have had to compromise between outdoor ability and practical daily use. The latter wins every time!
Rick O
Didn't the Inventor of the Segway make one of these with just the two wheels? I'm assuming that they never got approval or something.
freddotu
I use an Airwheel S8 scooter as a mobility device. It's the same two-wheel self-balancing design and it cannot climb stairs. As it weighs only 32 pounds / 14.5 kg, it's not problematic to find a ramp or to dismount to lift it up a short flight or a few steps. Unfortunately, the S8 is no longer in production and there appears to be nothing in the same class. This device in the article is more than ten times the weight! I suspect it will be much more than ten times the cost as well.
Jinpa
Isn't the U.S. standard stair height 8 inches? If so, the current design falls just short. And what would it do if stairs in a particular location were not all exactly the same height? There needs to be some safety margin for the stair-height that this automated chair can climb. The article says it can't climb spiral stairs. Would it be able to navigate stairs with 90-degree turns, which are common in U.S. two-story houses? Those first two or three stairs from the ground floor often have 9-inch height, as do one or more of the remainder of the straight set, which carpenters use to make the whole set fit the overall height.
MQ
These "tech" companies consign themselves to niche offerings through economics.

$40k for less functinality than a lawn tractor, it could have a cutting deck added to provide contractor utility... (sort of joking but not really -mobility impared people can do really adventurous stuff) -retractible tracked stair climber is all very irobot level (the company not the movie)..

Thumbs up at getting to market.

Making a balancing robot isn't an unsolvable aim (yes I have done it) simple rule based autonomy at low speed also isn't too hard - ie detect objects, map walls, don't run stuff over..

Hobocat
Full-body, A.I.- assisted robotic suits will be game changing, at some point in the (near) future.