📝 Teleprompter Script

I've been a wheelchair user my whole life.

And I've watched technology transform everything around me.

My phone can recognize my face.

My car can drive itself.

My watch tracks my heart rate.

But my wheelchair?

It's basically the same as it was thirty years ago.

Here's what drives me crazy.

The phone in my pocket has more computing power than the entire wheelchair industry has ever put into a mobility device.

Lead acid batteries.

No sensors.

No software updates.

No innovation.

Why?

Because the companies that make wheelchairs have no reason to change.

They have a captured market.

Insurance pays.

Regulations protect them.

And everything is locked down.

Closed source.

Proprietary.

Secret.

And here's the thing.

We're about to have a lot more people who need this technology.

By 2030, one in six people on Earth will be over 60.

One in four of them will need help getting around.

We are not ready.

So what's the answer?

Open source.

Let me explain what that means.

Think about your phone.

If you have an Android, you're using open source software.

That means anyone can see how it works.

Anyone can improve it.

Anyone can build on top of it.

That's why Android phones got so good so fast.

Thousands of engineers around the world contributing.

Competing.

Innovating.

Now imagine that for wheelchairs.

That's what RAMMP is.

RAMMP stands for Robotic Assistive Mobility Modular Platform.

It's an open-source wheelchair platform.

Backed by 41 million dollars from ARPA-H.

That's the government agency that brought us the internet.

Here's how it works.

We're building a foundation.

A Group 3 power wheelchair that's completely open.

Open hardware.

Open software.

Open documentation.

Anyone can see how it works.

Anyone can improve it.

Anyone can build on top of it.

And that unlocks everything.

University students can actually work on real wheelchair technology.

Right now, they can't.

The electronics are locked down.

The software is proprietary.

There's nothing to study.

With RAMMP, engineering students at Pitt, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Purdue — they can contribute.

Researchers can publish their work.

Share their code.

Build on each other's discoveries.

The best ideas win.

Not the biggest legal teams.

And here's where it gets exciting.

This open platform becomes the foundation for everything.

Robotic arms.

Autonomous navigation.

Smart home integration.

Fall detection.

Voice control.

All of it.

Because when you have an open platform, innovation compounds.

Every improvement benefits everyone.

Right now, simple repairs to a power wheelchair take between three and six months because of bloated distributor networks.

This is going to be drastically reduced.

But here's what really matters.

This isn't about technology for technology's sake.

It's about independence.

It's about people staying in their homes.

Living their lives.

Not ending up in institutions.

Better mobility technology means more years of independence.

That's what we're fighting for.

I've spent my whole life waiting for wheelchair technology to catch up.

I'm done waiting.

RAMMP is how we make it happen.

Open source mobility.

For everyone.

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