Jake Laser is an engineer who’s popular on YouTube where he’s known as JLaservideo. His father was an avid marathon runner before Multiple Sclerosis confined him to a manual wheelchair for the last two decades — and Jake recently fulfilled a childhood promise to his dad by turning a $100,000 industrial robot dog into a high-tech, off-road wheelchair.
To help his dad get back into the great outdoors, Jake reprogrammed the four-legged robot, and mounted a custom, illuminated racing seat on top. Now equipped with motorized wheels on its feet, the “bionic leg chair” glides down paved roads, steps over rocky riverbeds, and climbs steep dirt hiking trails.
During trial runs, Jake’s dad was beaming from ear to ear, declaring himself the “king of the road” as he conquered nature trails he hadn’t been able to visit in 20 years.