Mobility

restore mobility to millions of stroke patients for 15,000 euros

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The Spanish company Robopedics has presented the final design of Awake, your bionic mobility assistance device. It is a unique product in the world and is developed with a clear and very specific objective: to help people who have suffered a stroke rehabilitate and regain the ability to walk. You have probably heard of this disease, but it is also very likely that you do not know its subsequent impact: 93% of those who survive end up having significant consequences, and in fact 82% end up having continuous dependence and permanent help in the chronic phase. Many lose their autonomy and ability to walk. And that’s where Robopedics comes in. From the storage room to a promising medical revolution TO Ivan MartinezCEO and co-founder of Robopedics, it didn’t occur to him that he wanted to create a company to help stroke patients walk again. The only thing he wanted was to help his father, who suffered a stroke before the pandemic that left him without that ability. Iván Ramírez, CEO and co-founder of Robopedics. With that illness Iván had a shock of reality. After the stroke came dependency, the slowness of the system and the frustration of seeing that the technology did not seem to be made for cases like his father’s. “He only had one leg affected, but all the solutions were for two.” That’s how it is. The solutions that we usually find on the market are bilateral clinical devices that are designed for spinal cord injuries. These exoskeletons are striking, but they have many limitations. The first, the price, which usually starts at 100,000 euros. The second, the weight: they do not weigh less than 20 kg and make handling complicated. In fact, Ramírez points out, current solutions barely have any scope: although it may seem more because of their popularity in the media, only about 500 units are sold a year, when there are more than 20 million people who would need them. Ramírez decided to build from scratch a unilateral bionic device (“it is not an exoskeleton,” its creators insist) that would be capable of helping those who had lost unilateral mobility after a stroke to walk. Ramírez tells us without drama: “during the first four years I was alone. I took notes from my degree, tutorials, papers, I went to events… I learned as I went.” Iván had the help of the medical staff who treated his father, for example, but the technological solution was entirely in his hands. Without resources or equipment, he began to design and test his first structures from home, with basic engines. “I thought it would be a three-afternoon project, and I spent four whole years on it.” And then something happened. His father died during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the blow was tremendous. “Ramírez kept the prototype in the storage room and forgot about it for months.” But then, “by circumstances and coincidences,” he confesses, he met his co-founders, Dionís Guzmán and Marc Serraand decided that this device could become a commercial product. One that would help improve the lives of many people, even if he would not be able to help Iván’s father. Get up and walk This is how Robopedics was born, which little by little developed its current solution, Awake. Until then, Ramírez explains to us, existing exoskeletons were bilateraldesigned for people with spinal injuries or who cannot move either leg. This engineer soon understood why there were no solutions for those who only had one leg affected: it was much more difficult. With two robotic legs there is always one resting on the ground, making balance and control easier. But with only one, the system has to coordinate the robotic leg with the patient’s healthy leg, which does not have sensors or assistance. “Doing it with one leg seemed simpler, but it was just the opposite: without instrumenting the healthy leg, everything is much more complex,” he explains. The result was a lightweight unipodal exoskeletonwith adjustable telescopic joints and an electronic system curiously based on a Raspberry Pi in its industrial model. The idea not only reduced costs – key in a market where prices are skyrocketing – but also opened the door to more accessible and modular manufacturing. With the start of the business project, Iván and his partners added physiotherapists and neurological rehabilitation specialists to the team. Sandra Torrell, a team physiotherapist who has been working with stroke patients for years, explains how in the initial tests “we saw that the device really worked. There were patients who arrived tired and left walking straighter, more confident. And that change was maintained over time.” The device has already passed the technical development and laboratory testing phases, and is now entering the clinical trials stage to achieve medical certification. This approval, in which they have spent four years, has been long but, curiously, fruitful: by having to meet the demanding medical requirements, the product “is much better than it was at the beginning of the process,” confesses Ramírez. In fact, if everything goes as expected, Awake will be available in Spain in the second half of next year. And subsequently the idea is to expand the market, first in the European Union and then in the rest of the world. For this expansion, Robopedics has been closing successive rounds of investment, raising two million euros in the past, to which another million more is added in a new recent financing round and another 700,000 euros that they hope to raise in an imminent round. Among its key partners, Iván Ramírez highlights, are the Mondragón group as the main investor, in addition to Erreka as in charge of global manufacturing. To develop the product they have worked in collaboration with the Valencia Biomechanics Institute and The CT Engineering Group. The funds are used, for example, to achieve regulatory authorization as a class IIa medical device and thus be able to launch it on the market. How does Awake work… and how much does it … Read more

The bottlenecks of summer mobility

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As usual, in summer, Spanish roads are suffocated by traffic caused by vacations and tourism. Nobody wants to face long lines, although there will be times when it is inevitable. This summer they are expected More than 100 million displacementsalthough it is logical, some roads will suffer much more than others. Therefore, under these lines we wanted to make a brief review of which roads can become a real torture if you are planning your vacation. Highways and highways that rest rather little As they point out from The debate, The A-66 that connects Asturias with León Crossing the port of Huerna, heads the ranking of the most problematic roads in the country. The works of their tunnels have turned this section into a bottleneck that can generate withholdings of several hours, especially during the weekends. And surely what worries the drivers most is that 15 euros toll that they must pay to access. Pay to stand standing. The great radials that start from Madrid do not get rid of chaos. The A-3 to Levante It is saturated every Friday afternoon with Madrid people looking for the Mediterranean beaches, while the A-4 towards Andalusia, the A-2 in Barcelona direction and the A-5 road of Extremadura record similar collapses throughout the season. The ringms of the big cities are not short either. The M-30 maintains its already classic summer jam (although we have practically every day), while The GR-30 in Granada It should also be avoided at certain times, for putting only a couple of examples. Beautiful routes that begin with many beeps and tension Some of the most beautiful places in Spain also need to be patient to deal with traffic. The road AS-262 that leads to Los Lagos de Covadonga It has become a headache for those who plan to visit the Picos de Europa. Shuttle buses, specifically designed to reduce traffic, generate precisely the opposite effect by concentrating all vehicles in the basilica area. In the islands, the situation does not improve. The MA-2141 that leads to Sa CalobraIn Mallorca, it is a serpenting nightmare of 14 kilometers where a vehicle is barely possible. The closed curves and the absence of signaling end up turning the trip throughout an odyssey that can leave us stop for hours. Tenerife is more of the same in The TF-436the narrow road that gives access to Masca. If you planned to visit the area, keep in mind that this road is usually quite busy during the summer. And the curves and their narrowness do not help. Traffic planning and consultation Experts recommend avoiding Fridays between 4:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Sundays from 7:00 p.m. to Midnight. You can always use alternative routes and applications for consult real -time traffic so that nothing caught you by surprise. With the Santiago bridge already here, the forecasts point to 6.5 million displacements Between Thursday 24 and Sunday, July 27. Also, in Andalusia, there is usually a lot of traffic concentration in cities accesses such as Malaga and Seville. The first weekend of July was especially agitated in these areas, where more than one million displacements were expected. We are all looking forward to disconnecting on vacation and leaving, but then you stand in the middle of the highway and think about how like you would have been staying at home. Cover image | Yanhao Fang In Xataka | How to know if I have fines of the DGT pending paying

The works sandwich on roads and Metro converts mobility into a puzzle

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Mire where you look, there are works. It doesn’t matter when you read this if you live in Madrid. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are retired. If something must be seen in Madrid are works. Because the city has entered a reformist spiral that touches all sticks. And if public transport should be the alternative to the private car … Guess. Yes, it is also in works. A summer of the least placid. It is not Madrid the best city to visit in summer. Cars, asphalt and high buildings are the perfect combination for turn the city into an oven. Much more if we consider that they shine Hard squares through the city center, which is about Give emergency solutionseither The parks are closed. But those of us who live in Madrid found a good part in spending the months of July and August in the city: it was calm. The usual river of people becomes a stream, some leisure can be done when heat stops squeezing and, above all, one comes to work at a time because the traffic jams did not exist. Today, that is a thing of the past. Mire where you look. Right now, it doesn’t matter if you use the private car as public transport: Madrid is collapsed. Every morning the traffic bulletin gives the usual notices on the radio. But to the usual traffic jams are added notices that have become repeat offenders. The city had not been seen in an equal. In The country They remember an anecdote that dated in 2001. Then Danny de Vito, who was promoting a film in the city, ironized ensuring that he loved Madrid but that “he will win a lot the day they find the treasure.” Impossible by car. If you travel by car you have to be careful with the entrance to the A-5, The great underground of one of the main arteries of entry to the city that, in addition, is causing problems with neighbors. Whoever access here inside the city will verify how the usual four lanes in the direction have become two lanes with a winding layout to save the cranes. Right now, you can no longer access the M-30 tunnel but those who get there await more works in sales, where you want cover the M-30 to generate a huge green space that connects the linear city neighborhood with that of Salamanca. Neither in the northern zone are freed from the works. In the current four towers A huge park has been projected Under which the connection between Sinesio Delgado with the northern knot (where they connect the M-30 and M-40) has been projected. Again, the intention is that in the upper area you can enjoy a huge green zone hiding cars in a tunnel. Public transport. Taking into account that circulating in Madrid with a private vehicle now resembles a Mario Kart race (Asphalt operation included)public transport should be the solution. But those who have chosen to leave the car at home and use interurban entry buses to Madrid for the A-5 have long known that it is not a simple task. The residents of Alcorcón have asked that camp military land can be used as a deterrent parking. Thus, drivers can connect with subway and vicinity. The problem is that In the Metro they will find a partially closed line 6affecting about 400,000 travelers. To line 6 are added from next week the Metro line 7 workswith the park stations of the avenues, Cartagena and Alonso Canoperativa. Who will expect to find refuge in vicinity, there are also bad news. Because right now there is Cortes in the C-5 Between Villaverde Alto and Ambassadors and until August The suns tunnel will be closedleaving unused the station station (nearby) and cutting the passage between Chamartín and Atocha of lines C-3 and C-4. Exchangers. Did you think we had finished? Well, to all these inconveniences we must add great exchangers that are under works. In Chamartín, remodeling is still underway And right now you have to arm yourself with patience and go with time if you want to take a bird. The Count of Casal exchangerthat has added traffic cuts in the entrance tunnel by the A-3 and that will serve as a key node in the Metro line 11 union with line 12the circular section that serves all urban nuclei in southern Madrid. And frozen projects. To all of the above you have to add the remodeling works of Metro line 7bthe connection between the Metropolitan Stadium and the Henares Hospital whose works were subject to a great controversy because they have caused irreversible damage to the homes of some neighbors. Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet Click on the image to go to the original tweet Constant anger. This entire barulo of works that has implications in filming traffic, in the subway and in vicinity is causing a fed up among the residents of the city that can be easy to trace on social networks. The chaos was complete yesterday July 21. A drop in yesterday systems in the subway caused Line 10 delays. To this was added a breakdown in a catenary between the stations of Laguna and Ambassadors, causing a funnel of travelers in that southwest. To close the circle, also the Bicimad public bicycle services was fallen and faults were recorded in the North Light Metro Line (ML1). Throughout the summer, social networks are broadcasting live the chaos that are lived in the Metro and in Surroundings where the stations are full and travelers have to miss trains because they are crowded. Photo | Madrid City Council and Community Transport of Madrid In Xataka | Guide not to be lost in Madrid with the megaobra and underground of the A-5: deadlines, traffic cuts and public transportation

Without traffic lights for the blackout, Spain lived a real libertarian experiment of mobility. And it went quite well

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And at 12:32 p.m. on April 28, 2025, Spain went black. We knew almost immediately when connections with our partners were cut of work. Computers with the Black screentrains stopped in the tunnels, frozen elevators between plants and on the street … on the street a normal life. More or less. Because beyond the tails in the Mercadona and the children running and shouting through the courtyard of school at abnormally late hours, traffic more or less flowed. No available trainsthe passengers jumped to shot traffic. In private cars, in public buses and making horsetop. More or less, at greater or lesser speed, Traffic continued flowing. Yes, we have seen that in the center of the big cities such as Madrid or Barcelona, ​​the main roads soon getting stuck. But it is also true that traffic worked with relative calm there in many other parts. It was the confirmation that traffic can flow if we put a little all on our part. And it is the confirmation of why there are those who design cross -free crossings. Traffic lights in Granada on April 28, 2025 during the national blackout A little please On March 17, 1926, almost 100 years ago, Madrid installed the first traffic light in Spain. He arrived to make “a more rational use of private cars and generally favor that of public transport, in addition to making citizen coexistence more pleasant and contributing to a greater and safer use of the street for pedestrians”, as read on municipal sides of the time. Who was going to tell us that almost a century later, the radio would concatenate connections by Spanish cities in which the return of the light to the traffic lights of the street was celebrated. It was enough to hit the ear to the transistor to feel some relief in the voice of the reporters who finally pointed out that the light had returned to the traffic lights. With the traffic lights it seemed to return normality. That red light that prohibits the passage to whoever crosses my path and leaves me free. That amber light that warns me of danger but It seems that it only shouts that accelerates. But what if normality remained without traffic lights? It is what happened in most of the country. Without lights to regulate traffic, cordiality, negotiation was imposed and we did not have to regret serious incidents. The supposed anarchy never became such and putting all on our part took control of the streets. “We install traffic lights to promote fluidity and increase speed, against negotiation and In many cases we do the opposite“The words were expressed by Román Torre, a member of the XIXONÉS OF MOBILITY and author of various articles related to mobility in cities. On your tweetreferred to a crossing in which it is observed how vehicles circulate with total fluidity. Of course, it is not a crossing with the volume of traffic that we can find in the North Zone of Madrid which, everything is said, It usually stuck with and without traffic lights. And, in fact, the tower itself indicates at the end of the thread that it is a solution “that is not worth all sites.” Click on the image to go to the original tweet However, the video does show that on many occasions the fluidity of the traffic is guaranteed without traffic lights. And, the best thing is that it is not only guaranteed, it is also a safer solution. If there are no lights, the driver is obliged to reduce the speed when approaching a crossing because he does not have the traffic light safety network guaranteeing a free track. At lower speed, a possible clash is more unlikely, it would have lower consequences and, in addition, the possibility of an outrage are reduced. The DGT contemplates How to act at intersections without priority of passage But just watch a video recorded yesterday to check how the negotiation It is imposed to give way to each car little by little, Without slowing traffic. It is something that has been studied and applied in the Netherlands. An example is that of Alexanderplein in the center of Amsterdam. There, after various studiesit was decided to eliminate traffic lights and found that despite living cyclists and trams, traffic fluidity is better than without the lights that supposedly manage traffic. The secret is to observe the rest of the traffic agents. Something similar is what is applied in Groningen where the maximum has applied for years “All green” for cyclists at 29 intersections of the city. Fully closing traffic to cars for a few seconds, it was found that if bicycles are allowed to circulate total freedom (a similar experience to do it without traffic lights) traffic is more fluid. One of the reasons is undoubtedly low speed that circulates that facilitates making decisions in very little space and, therefore, fluidity when taking one or another way. That controlled chaos is possible thanks to the fact that we move “As we would behave if we were pedestrians”, In Ford words. The company presented some time ago a solution to take advantage of communication between vehicles to eliminate traffic lights and, with them, unnecessary waiting. Without lights regulating traffic, ensures that autonomous cars They can move with total tranquility Because they reduce speed when they reach intersections and movements are safer. The point is that what humans live yesterday. Torre explains in Migijón That the absence of lights causes drivers to take the initiative when crossing the intersection instead of “obeying” the green or red light. This prevents trumpeting with a stop, an acceleration and a new detention on the next street. Obviously, without traffic lights, the car stops but applying some negotiation between drivers, the arrests are much shorter as it can be seen in their videos. Much of the secret is in that reduction in speed when approaching the intersection. No traffic light, the driver must circulate more slowly and … Read more

Trump government closes the Safe Mobility (SMO) offices that facilitated legal migration

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The administration of Donald Trump It is closing the migration processing offices in Latin America that the Biden administration established for give migrants the possibility of legally immigrating, According to internal government documents Obtained by CBS News. The internal documents of the State Department Obtained by CBS News, they indicate that the Trump administration is ceasing operations in those places, known as offices of the “Safe Mobility Initiative” and that They were established in established in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Guatemalaas part of a “broader effort to evaluate how the United States manages migratory processes to serve US national interests.” The offices allowed certain migrants who lived in those countries or passed through them to request to apply to programs that allowed them to legally enter the United States. The documents also cite the executive order of President Trump that suspended the United States refugee admission programwhich allows some people fleeing war and persecution abroad to reach the United States after interviews of interviews and security exams and doctors. Safe mobility offices were physical regional centers for the US to determine If migrants qualified to legally enter the countrywhether under the refugee program, family visas, work visas or an immigration benefit known as humanitarian probation. Continue reading:· They extend the authority to investigate and detain immigrants to other government agencies· Trump administration arrest 538 immigrants, several linked to criminal organizations· At least 11 prosecutors come against Trump and refuse to participate in new immigration policy (Tagstotranslate) State Department (T) Donald Trump

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