We are a World-leading company within soft muscle strengthening systems that enhance natural grasp strength and improve quality of life.
Our innovative solutions provide support to people in need of extra strength, endurance or reduction of effort. All our products are based on our patented SEM™ (Soft Extra Muscle) technology invented by Professor Hans von Holst, Professor Jan Wikander and Doctor Johan Ingvast.
We enhance quality of life by providing power and endurance to the people
We provide powered muscle strengthening devices and services to keep industrial workers healthy and efficient and to enhance quality of life by keeping people with reduced muscle strength in motion
Hans von Holst, a neurosurgeon at Karolinska Hospital, had a vision of a product that could enhance existing strength. He wanted to help his patients, who had some arm and hand mobility, to use the function they had left.
Jan Wikander, professor in Mechatronics at the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), had for a long time worked with robots of various kinds. Among these was a robotic hand. Hans and Jan saw the opportunity to use the same robotic technology and turn it into a bionic glove with the possibility to strengthen the human grasp. The idea was to create a glove that can prevent stress injuries, can be used in rehabilitation and provide support to people during their daily activities at home or at work.
Watch Hans Von Holst talk about the origins of Carbonhand.
The idea was presented to Johan Ingvast, PhD, who started to turn the vision into a product starting in May 2006. As a result, they invented the Soft Extra Muscle (SEM™) technology. Thanks to this background we combine the best of two worlds: medical expertise with modern robotic technology to create innovative bionic, grasp strengthening products for people with reduced muscle strength or hand function.
Our first commercial product was the SEM Glove™ (predecessor to Carbonhand®) which provided extra force and endurance to people with a weak hand grip. The SEM™ technology concept ventures significantly beyond other state-of-the-art devices by introducing a technology that follows the user's actions in an intuitive way and enhances the grasping force only if the human initiates a grasp.