There wasn’t a large volume of new technology for amputees on display at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, which wrapped up over the weekend in Las Vegas. But whatever CES 2025 lacked in quantity, it made up for in quality: A groundbreaking prosthetic leg walked away with one of the show’s biggest awards.
That would be the Bio Leg, manufactured by a tiny Japanese startup called BionicM. Competing against the biggest corporate players in global tech, BionicM received a prestigious “Best of Innovation” Award for its device, the first commercially available prosthesis that combines motor-powered joints with AI-assisted gait management.
“Ninety-nine percent of current prostheses are passive, which means there’s no power,” said Bio Leg’s inventor, Sun Xiaojun, during a presentation at CES. “It’s like they have bone and joint without muscle.” Bio Leg corrects that deficit via an onboard motor which reduces effort in walking, sit-to-stand maneuvers, and other routine aspects of mobility. AI sensors constantly monitor the leg’s momentum, acceleration, direction, and orientation in space, enabling wearers to walk with a very natural gait and navigate stairs, inclines, and other irregular surfaces with ease.
“[The Bio Leg] can bring high mobility, help patients improve their quality of life, and reduce medical cost over the lifetime,” said Xiaojun, who is himself an above-knee amputee.
The Bio Leg received L-code approval and began shipping to US consumers last summer, winning a race with its closest competitor—the Ottobock-backed Utah Bionic Leg—to reach the American marketplace. BionicM has been making the O&P trade-show rounds ever since, working to grab market share while Ottobock’s entry wends it way through the final stages of insurance approval. During CES 2025, the company announced the establishment of a Virginia-based subsidiary, BioncM USA, to streamline distribution and goose sales efforts.
The Bio Leg costs $51,000 to the patient/insurer, $30,000 to the O&P clinic. You can get more info about BionicM’s reception at CES via Charbax and DRM News.
Here are three other products that were on display at CES 2025 and hold of interest for the limb-loss community:
Syla bionic knee
Syla is based in war-torn Ukraine — which, like most of the world, lacks the infrastructure to support a high quality of life for amputees. The war has further taxed Ukraine’s limited resources by adding tens of thousands of new amputees to the population. But the growing urgency of the problem has also unlocked new sources of investment in companies like Syla, which has been around since 2015, and created a burst of progress. Syla’s MPK knee is lightweight (1.5 pounds), durable, AI-equipped, aesthetically pleasing, and relatively affordable. It’s still a couple of years away from reaching European consumers, and even further from entering the US market. Info at syla.pro.
Luaz Care wheelchair-accessible EV
Another Ukrainian company, Luaz, showcased an electric vehicle that can be operated directly from a wheelchair. Instead of transferring from their assistive device to a regular car seat, drivers (and riders) roll their chair right into the automobile. The accessible EV has a range of up to 300 km (180 miles) and costs less then $15,000. Luaz has started mass producing the vehicle, but we couldn’t find any information about the company’s plans for selling the product in the United States. Info at luazcare.com.
OYMotion OHand
This bionic device first appeared at CES back in 2018, when it was still in the prototype stage. It has now achieved commercial completion, although it doesn’t seem to be available in the United States yet. The OHand features independent finger control, 18 preprogrammed grips, and a gesture training platform to help users master the device. The associated smart app allows users to configure original grips. Details at oymotion.com/en/product31.
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