RoboLife: A 22-year-old’s mission to provide affordable bionic limbs

RJ Atikul Gazi, who lost his arm while trying to rescue a man during the July uprising, has a bionic arm fitted on him by Joy, co-founder of RoboLife. Photo: Courtesy

Several years ago, Joy Barua Lablu would stay up late for his studies. In the same rental room which housed his four-member family, sometimes his father would also be awake, working late into the night. Joy's father worked multiple jobs, including that of an electrical technician at their village home in Chattogram's Jobra.

"He fixed things like televisions, radios, etc. I was curious, I would ask him questions, probe him, and he would tell me to focus on my studies and to leave the work to him," now a 22-year-old Joy recounted and chuckled. 

His father answered many of his queries, but not all. "I would try to find those answers." 

Joy remembers being curious beyond those nights. During the daytime, he stopped by shops. "I used to stand outside electrician's shops and stare at them. They [the repairmen] would ask if I needed anything, and I would say no, and ask questions about how the electrical things worked," said Joy, "I learned from them too." 

This curiosity did not wane over time; instead, it grew and influenced Joy's education and training, and ultimately his budding career in robotics. 

In 2018, 16-year-old Joy co-founded RoboLife Technologies and started to carve out a life as a roboticist — someone who is involved in the design, programming, construction and testing of robots. 

The company provides bionic limbs to Bangladeshis at a low cost. So far, RoboLife Technologies has been able to benefit 65 individuals and has a team of 14 — all of whom are university students from across the country. The company has also exported home-grown products to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India and Malaysia.

More recently, supported by the interim government and funded by a private company, Joy's RoboLife has built and fitted bionic limbs for five protestors injured during the July-August uprising. 

A road less travelled

Joy co-founded RoboLife when he was just 16. Photo: Courtesy

Joy speaks clearly, fluent in confidence — and not the arrogant kind. He takes on every question head-on. 

"My family background is not good. Baba [father] worked as a day labourer during the day and electrical technician at night," Joy said, adding, "I thought how could I ask for things that they [the family] do not have?"

Joy remembers collecting discarded products and building things with them. It was his older brother who started to financially assist Joy, buy him tools, etc. for his robotics pursuit. "My brother tutored students and bought me the tools. My father could not."

The family paid aplenty with support though. 

Somewhere around 2017-18, Joy noticed an armless car accident victim in his village and built a basic robotic hand for him. This is also when Joy took notice of the demand for low-cost bionic arms in the country and how many cannot afford the high price tags of imported ones. 

"I realised I cannot do this alone. I needed a team," said Joy. By then, he already had some recognition for robotics. A Facebook video of a robot arm garnered a lot of attention when Joy was enrolled in Chattogram's National Institute of Technology. This led to science fairs, first prizes and eventually an Innovation Expo Hub at Kakrail, where ICT ministry officials got wind of Joy's work. 

"They encouraged me to work with them to expand on my work, but when I applied [for a grant], I got no response," recalled Joy, adding, "As you must know, nothing works in this country without a reference. Thousands apply, but I do not think anyone gets in without a reference." 

Joy and his brother applied again, this time with a teacher's reference. It worked and they got the grant. 

"I co-founded RoboLife Technologies with my elder brother," said Joy, adding, "It was a collaboration with eight university students. The team members worked on what they respectively had expertise on." 

Most recently, the company fitted robotic arms for five protestors from the July uprising who have lost their arms. "We followed the news, we posted ourselves," he said, explaining the campaign they had set up. "Four out of five protestors got auto-controlled robotic arms," Joy said.

Joy's brother Bablu Barua, previously a pharmacist, prefers to stay out of the limelight. "He never once spoke to the media."  

While Joy's first order came from a shopkeeper in Cumilla who lost his arm while saving a child from a train, the company's first international order came in late 2019 from Turkey by word of mouth. 

By late 2020, Joy and his family moved to Dhaka and he enrolled into the United College of Aviation Science and Technology for a BSc in aeronautical engineering, on full scholarship. He currently studies there. 

Over the years, the RoboLife team grew to 14 and they got a sponsored lab in Gulshan. "Rent alone is Tk2-3 lakh and the private company spent Tk20-25 lakh to build the lab; we obviously do not have that kind of money," said Joy, who currently lives in Kalachandpur with his family and runs the office with his brother at Bashundhara. 

The mechanics and the market 

Photo: Courtesy

The company did not deviate from their primary objective: to provide bionic arms at low cost to Bangladeshis. The foreign-made ones cost Tk5.5 lakh, the starting price, according to Joy. "We offer products starting at Tk30,000 and the most expensive one is Tk2 lakh," he said. "This price also varies depending on the quality of the product and the version." 

The "version" depends on the "level" of what is needed. For instance, if it is only the palm, that is a level 1 prosthetic, whereas a full arm is level 5. "The longer the arm, the more expensive it is. Lower-quality equipment can be used, which would cost less. It is futile to tell someone who can only foot a Tk30,000 bill about a Tk1 lakh product. We try to accommodate those who cannot afford it." 

An EMG [electromyography] test is conducted to see if the robotic arm would be brain-controlled or auto-controlled. "Out of every 10 people who come to us, five do not register enough nerve value [via the test] — meaning a brain-controlled arm is not possible." 

Car accident survivors with amputations generally wind up with auto-controlled robotic arms, mainly because muscles and nerves have been severely burned and/or the amputation is above the elbow. 

Silicon gloves are important — they match the colour of the existing arm, and if high-tier, then the texture matches too. "This is important for the user to blend in, and to also avoid social embarrassment to an extent." 

The standard ones cost between Tk30,000 to Tk70,000. 

RoboLife builds robotic arms primarily because robotic legs or prosthetics are more readily available in the country. "Arms are more complex than legs," Joy said. 

The company often works with paralysis patients as well.

Arif, a RoboLife product recipient in 2023, currently works at a steel factory. He previously lost his arm after an electrocution accident in 2021. "I came to know about RoboLife through the internet, YouTube I think it was. The arm cost me Tk1.5 lakh," he told TBS. 

Although Joy started this company because there is a high demand for low-cost robotic arms, the company averages two orders per month. The low count is caused by an expectation mismatch or financial constraint from the clients' end. 

The political climate is also a factor among other things when it comes to foreign orders. The company saw no orders in the first eight months of this year. "Things picked up from August," said Joy. 

Most recently, the company fitted robotic arms for five protestors from the July uprising who have lost their arms. "We followed the news, we posted ourselves," he said, explaining the campaign they had set up. 

"Four out of five protestors got auto-controlled robotic arms," Joy said.