Highland innovator wows in international tech challenge
Andrew Slorance has secured $1 million dollars of support to realise his dream
A Highland innovator who vowed to "revolutionise the wheelchair" as a teen has won one million dollars to make his dream a reality.
51-year-old Andrew Slorance from Nairn saw off competition from the US, Japan and Italy to win Toyota's Mobility Unlimited Challenge with his Phoenix i wheelchair.
The intelligent chair automatically adjusts its centre of gravity to ensure the user can be agile and stable at the same time. The award of funding will bring Mr Slorance's innovation to market.
The competition was launched in 2017 in an effort to encourage innovation in assistive technologies for those with lower-limb paralysis.
Efforts from other finalists included a smart wearable simulator that uses artificial intelligence to support muscles at the right time, while exoskeleton technology was exhibited in a number of entries.
Mr Slorance broke his back when he was 14 after falling from a tree. He said his early experience motivated him to one day make the wheelchair a more desirable item.
"I remember lying in the hospital bed in Aberdeen and an occupational therapist came in and she wheeled a wheelchair up to my bed," said Mr Slorance.
"She said 'Andrew, I've got your new wheelchair for you. I hope you will agree it's rather a nice example'.
"I looked at this thing and I thought: 'You've got to be kidding right?' The first day I went out in that wheelchair was without doubt the worst day of my life.
"I felt completely immobilised because the thing was so big ... I suddenly realised everybody was looking at me in a way people had never looked at me before.
"Fairly soon after that I swore that, if no-one else did it, one day I would revolutionise the wheelchair to make it desirable, high-end tech, that actually gave you a real advancement in life."
With his company Phoenix Instinct, Mr Slorance went about creating the chair that he hopes will do just that.
The Phoenix i's ultra-light carbon fibre frame aids manoeuvrability, while the chair features a powered braking system which detects when the user is going downhill, managing the descent automatically.
"I nearly didn't do it,'' said Mr Slorance of the competition. "I just thought 'I haven't got a chance in this, a little company in the north of Scotland'.
"We live in a time when our fridge freezer can be smart, it can tell us the milk we put in has gone out of date. Yet the wheelchair is the thing you actually need every day of your life ... and it's still got the technology from 1984.
"This is a game changer."