It might seem like something straight out of the latest installment of Iron Man. A robotic arm that can be made using a 3-D printer, providing strength surpassing that of any human limb; a bionic skeleton suit, nearly invisible, enabling paralyzed individuals to walk again.
But instead of being featured in your local IMAX theater, these innovations can be found in the offices of Unlimited Tomorrow in Durango, Colorado, where 19-year-old CEO and founder Easton LaChappelle is collaborating with two colleagues in their 20s to make these advancements accessible to those in need.
“Our goal is to positively impact lives by offering affordable and functional solutions for disabilities,” LaChappelle explains. “There’s a wealth of technology available. No one requires a smartphone to survive. Imagine redirecting some of the intelligence dedicated to developing smartphones into the medical field. It would result in a very different world.”
Driven by a desire to make a difference, LaChappelle is prioritizing the needs of users before his own, as stated in his company’s mission. He has made the software for his prosthetic arm open-source, allowing others to download and enhance it freely. Despite having some funding, including support from life coach and motivational speaker Tony Robbins, LaChappelle is not taking a salary. “I don’t need it,” he explains. “And as a startup, every cent counts.” He aims to secure his own apartment before turning 20 in November but is currently residing with his parents.
Apart from that detail, LaChappelle is described by Dean Jarvis, a 46-year-old State Farm Insurance agent from Maryville, Tenn., who knows him well, as more akin to a 55-year-old CEO of a Fortune 500 company than a teenager. Jarvis, a former high school basketball star who lost his leg above the knee to osteosarcoma at 19, founded the Amputee Long Drive golf championship three years ago. The event has evolved into the ParaLong Drive, encompassing athletes with various disabilities. LaChappelle showcased his robotic arm at the inaugural tournament in Loudon, Tenn., and Jarvis has been supporting him at numerous events since then.
“I’ve witnessed Easton speak to audiences of 12- and 13-year-olds at Boys & Girls Clubs,” Jarvis shares. “I’ve also seen him address some of the world’s top scientists and engineers, where he elevates the conversation significantly without missing a beat. He is an exceptional communicator, businessman, and inventor.”
Having grown up in the small farming town of Mancos, Colo., LaChappelle developed a passion for gadgets. “I’ve always enjoyed dismantling things. You’re not supposed to see what’s inside, so it’s like solving a mystery,” he reveals. Starting at age 8, he began disassembling electronic toys, toasters, and DVD and VHS players. “Neighbors would leave their old appliances on my doorstep,” he quips.
During his early teens, LaChappelle entered his “high-voltage” phase. He extracted transformers from microwave ovens to create electrical versions of Jacob’s ladder, the climbing arc often seen in sci-fi movies animating Frankenstein. “I was close to causing a fire in my room and maybe even stopping my heart a few times. I scorched my carpet pretty badly; that’s when my dad entered my room and brought in a fire extinguisher.”
He then shifted his focus to robotics. At 14, he utilized Lego blocks to construct a robotic hand controlled by fishing wire and electrical tubing.
LaChappelle reached out to Jeremy Blum, who was then an engineering student at Cornell University and had already made significant contributions to robotics (such as self-assembling robots), to assist him in printing an animatronic arm on a 3-D printer. “Easton is extremely ambitious,” notes Blum, who now serves as a “hardware astronaut” on the Google Glass team. “He was determined to create something tangible and real and was not willing to listen to anyone suggesting he couldn’t achieve it.”
LaChappelle’s early projects were initially motivated by “boredom and fun,” he declares. However, everything changed at a science fair where he encountered a 7-year-old girl with a prosthetic limb that extended from her elbow to fingertips, costing $80,000, according to her parents. “That was a pivotal moment,” LaChappelle recollects. “I had always been constrained by limited funds, relying on earnings from a summer job spraying weeds to finance my projects. But upon realizing that I could potentially develop a full robotic arm for $500, I thought I could create a prosthetic to help people reclaim a part of their lives for under $1,000.”
Through Jarvis, he met amputees who provided him with greater insight into their requirements. “There’s a significant psychological aspect to using a prosthetic,” LaChappelle notes. “If you need to concentrate for five minutes to complete a simple task, it becomes a substantial burden. I spoke with individuals who had experimented with advanced prosthetic devices costing $100,000, which were so challenging to use that within a week, they reverted to the basic claw prosthetic they had previously used.”
As LaChappelle refined his robotic arm to increase its agility, word of his work spread. He was invited to present TEDx Talks and deliver keynote addresses at corporate and entrepreneurial gatherings worldwide. In 2013, he attended the White House Science Fair where President Obama shook hands with his robotic arm, and LaChappelle shared the story of the young girl who inspired him. That summer, he secured an internship at NASA and contributed to the Robonaut project at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Around this time, Robbins contacted LaChappelle after watching one of his TEDx Talks. “Easton’s vision and his ability to execute completely inspired me,” Robbins remarked. “I felt compelled to connect with him.” Robbins, known for helping numerous individuals cope with the emotional aftermath of paralysis due to gun violence, took a keen interest in LaChappelle’s latest venture: developing a lightweight exoskeleton suit—a wearable robot—enabling paraplegics to walk.
Robbins and LaChappelle agreed to establish Unlimited Tomorrow once Easton turned 18. This influenced his decision to forego college after graduating high school in 2014. “It was a significant choice,” LaChappelle admits. “I didn’t believe I could juggle the company and college simultaneously. I had been researching and accumulating ideas for years. Falling four years behind in technology was not an option for me; the pace of advancement is too rapid.” Furthermore, he was eager to advance the exoskeleton project. A close friend from high school, Brett, had been paralyzed in a car accident after being thrown from the backseat through the windshield. LaChappelle was determined to offer him an alternative to a wheelchair.
While some versions of exoskeleton suits already exist, they are bulky, heavy, and costly. “Our goal is to create an exoskeleton so slender that it can be worn beneath your clothing, concealing it from view,” LaChappelle details. “Additionally, the prototype we are developing will be easily adjustable; our vision is that you can order it on Amazon, unpack it, and start walking within a few minutes.”
LaChappelle has a well-thought-out business strategy for Unlimited Tomorrow. He sees applications for his robotic inventions in education, industry, police, and military settings. (While he does not intend to weaponize the exoskeleton or robotic arm, LaChappelle believes they could be utilized to save lives in activities such as bomb defusal and assisting SWAT teams). Profits derived from these applications will be reinvested in the company to bring the exoskeleton to market, including funding the necessary trials for Food and Drug Administration approval.
The mission of Unlimited Tomorrow is to “empower humans to achieve the impossible.” Currently, there’s only one thing that LaChappelle finds out of his grasp: reconnecting with the 7-year-old girl he encountered at Colorado’s 2011 state science fair who transformed his perspective.
“I really wish I could somehow reach out to her,” LaChappelle expresses. “I never learned her name, but I hold onto hope that someone who knows her will hear about our work and reach out.”
