Trexo’s Story

Trexo’s story began in 2011 when Manmeet learned that his nephew, Praneit, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The doctors would later tell his family that Praneit would not be able to walk as a result of his diagnosis. Manmeet and his family searched for many solutions to help Praneit walk, only to find that there was nothing available. They heard that there were these “exoskeletons” that could help with mobility, but it turned out that they were only for adults. During this time, Manmeet learned that children with disabilities spend their entire lives sitting, which can lead to negative health outcomes. Without the ability to walk, many children simply don’t have a way to exercise and stay active and healthy.

Manmeet had a deep desire to help his nephew so he asked his friend Rahul to help him. They knew about Ironman and both studied robotics at the University of Waterloo, so building a robot to help Praneit made a lot of sense! The Trexo was born and evolved over time into the product you see today.

Trexo’s special story has played a big role in our values and mission. We design everything with a child’s comfort and needs in mind. With each child who uses the Trexo, the device gets better.

This approach to co-creating our devices with children, parents and physiotherapists, is deeply ingrained in the way we think of solutions. At the end of the day, our goal is to create technologies that physical therapists trust, parents can afford and children love. Finally after many months of testing and designing and testing again, Praneit got his very own Trexo. Manmeet wrote about Praneit’s experience with the Trexo Home and what it meant for the whole team. We have also shared Trexo’s story on the Rifton blog! In November 2018, Manmeet Maggu gave a Ted Talk titled “How I made a Robot to help my Nephew Walk”. It’s pretty awesome if we may say so ourselves, check it out!