Gravitrex, groundbreaking walking assistant, makes rehab safer

After suffering an accident in 2022, Richard Burns and his daughter, Kira Burns, were frustrated with his options for rehab. As a result, they created Gravitrex. The duo received funding from the WearTech Applied Research Center and Arizona Commerce Authority to bring their design to life.

Gravitrex is a walking-assistant device aiding older adults, making rehab safer and more accessible. In 2024, Gravitrex Inc. won the National Institute on Aging Startup Challenge which supports products aimed at improving the quality of life for older adults.

Gravitrex Inc.’s Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Richard Burns and Co-Founder and CEO Kira Burns, joined “Arizona Horizon” to talk about their groundbreaking walking-assistant device.

Burns says that the inspiration behind the device came after witnessing her grandmother struggle to walk due to painful knee osteoarthritis.

The device works by taking up to 100 pounds of weight off someone’s legs when they are trying to walk. By taking the weight burden off of someone’s legs gives them a safer, and likely more successful, chance to regain their ability to walk.

“It makes walking easier and safer, and for people with joint pain it reduces the pain and makes it less painful,” Richard Burns said. “It maintains the support throughout the period that you’re walking.”

The Burns’ inspiration to develop Gravitrex started with personal anecdotes of rehabilitation, and stemmed to a greater realization that a device like theirs is a necessity for the industry.

“We developed this hand-in-hand with physical therapists who have this need because of a technology gap,” Kira Burns said. “From the very advanced rehabilitation equipment that’s in in-patient rehab facilities, between that and just holding a patient up.”

According to Kira Burns, a version of Gravitrex is being launched into clinics, but the goal is to create a smaller version of the device that can be used at home in order to maximize accessibility.