Caden Lee
President
Mechanical Engineering, UBC. Founded Friction after his accessible-design prototype won the Simon Cox Competition. Robotics, CAD/FEA, machining, manufacturing, and accessibility work since high school.
DETACHABLE POWER ASSIST · GEN 1 IN DEVELOPMENT
Push less.
Go anywhere.
A compact module that mounts under the seat of your manual wheelchair and gives you full joystick control — powered steering, powered propulsion, rollback prevention, and suspension that keeps the drive wheel planted on real terrain. Your chair stays your chair.
Target price under $5,000 — competitors run $5,500–$9,000 and still make you steer by hand.
110+wheelchair users surveyed & interviewed
30+users have asked to test Gen 1
<$5Ktarget price — thousands less than today's devices
1stplace, Simon Cox Competition — judged by people with disabilities
THE GAP
Power assist exists.
It just doesn't work hard enough.
Today's add-ons cost $5,500–$9,000, only push you forward — you still steer by dragging your rims — and many lose traction the moment the drive wheel hits a bump. So ~99% of manual wheelchair users go without. Here's what users told us:
"I love my manual chair but hate my SmartDrive. The battery was inconsistent, the watch kept disconnecting, and it broke. I gave up and got a power chair."
— Survey respondent, manual wheelchair user
"Every power-assist I've tried still requires my arms. I want a joystick so I have full control of my movement, not just a little help pushing."
— Survey respondent, manual wheelchair user
"Most power-assists are too heavy to get in and out of my car by myself, so they only help at home — not with the outings I actually need them for."
— Survey respondent, manual wheelchair user
THE MODULE
One unit under your seat.
Everything the market left out.
The Friction module clamps to your chair's rigid rear axle, between the wheels — no footprint change, no tools to detach, and your chair still works exactly as it always has when the module is off or in passive mode.
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01 · STEERING
Full joystick control
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02 · SAFETY
Rollback prevention
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03 · TERRAIN
Suspension built in
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04 · ASSIST
Smart push assist
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05 · FORM FACTOR
Compact, under-seat mount
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06 · FREEDOM
Detaches without tools
Three modes
Ride it your way.
01 · joystick drive
Active
Full joystick drive. Steer and go without touching your rims.
02 · boosted manual
Power Assist
You push, it boosts — sensing your force and direction and amplifying both.
03 · free rolling
Passive
Free-rolling. The module steps aside and your chair feels fully manual.
THE LANDSCAPE
Nobody else combines these.
At any price.
Existing add-ons are propulsion-only — or they replace your wheels and convert your chair. Friction is the only detachable under-seat module that adds powered steering without modifying the chair.
| Feature | Friction Gen 1 · target <$5,000 | SmartDrive MX2+ Permobil · $5.7–7.4K | Empulse R90 Sunrise · ~$7.3K | NAVIONE Yamaha · TBD | Firefly 2.5 Rio Mobility · ~$3K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Powered joystick steering | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Rollback prevention | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ | — |
| Suspension for rough terrain | ✓ | — | — | — | — |
| Proportional push assist | ✓ | — | — | ✓ | — |
| No footprint change | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | — |
| Detaches without tools | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Under $5,500 | ✓ | — | — | TBD | ✓ |
Competitor pricing and features from manufacturer materials, May 2026. NAVIONE not yet broadly available.
HOW WE BUILD
With wheelchair users.
Not for them.
Every design decision at Friction is shaped by the people who'll rely on it daily. We've surveyed 110+ manual wheelchair users, run in-depth interviews, and put the prototype directly into users' hands — including at the Simon Cox Competition, where a jury of people with disabilities awarded it first place.
This summer, Gen 1 goes through hands-on testing with the wheelchair-user community — on real sidewalks, hills, and doorways, not just in the shop.
THE FOUNDERS
Hardware, healthcare, and user-led product execution.
Hudson Nguyen
VP, Business Development
Computational Biology, Brown. Healthcare business experience from McKinsey and scaling Stellar Sleep (YC '23). Leads strategy, financial modeling, and customer discovery.
Ryan Chan
VP, Technical
Mechatronics, Waterloo. Hardware, electrical, and software depth from Tesla, Apple, and robotics startups — from consumer wearables to humanoid robots.
Ress Nguyen
VP, Operations
Mechanical Engineering, UBC. Systems thinking and product development across aerospace and robotics — turning ambitious concepts into manufacturable products.
GET IN TOUCH
Let’s talk.
Whether you're a wheelchair user, a family member, a clinician, a community organization, or an investor — we'd love to hear from you. We read every message.
Or email us directly: team@frictionrobotics.ca