This great TEDx Talk (Selnau) by Dr. Lijin Aryananda, who has extensive and also practically relevant own hands on experience, points to relevant design principles in rehabilitation robotics or mechanical design.

Transcript

Standing here, I get this feeling that many of you in this room face big problems, tough problems every day. Or maybe it’s just from the number of expensive suits I see here everywhere—another one there. Good evening, everyone.

I’d like to ask each of you to do something. Can you please choose one of your toughest, hardest problems you’re trying to solve at the moment? Everybody got one? Like everyone, please—even if you don’t have expensive suits. Thank you.

So now, what if someone walks into your office tomorrow and tells you that he or she has a very simple solution which can very easily solve your problem? What would you do? Now, hold on to that thought—we’ll get back to this later.

My name is Legionary Ananda Blutter. I forget that part… always. I’m a roboticist. I make these robotic cakes for my daughter’s birthdays. This year, she can press a button, and the cake sings “Old MacDonald.” A cow and horse start walking around on top of the cake. It was fun—I think I had more fun than all the kids at that party.

I work with robots. It was through working with robots, which can often be complex, that I learned something about simplicity and how valuable simplicity can be. I’d like to share with you two key lessons which have significantly transformed my approach and expectations for others in solving problems.

Let’s start with lesson number one: simplicity is not easy, but it’s worth it. Some years ago, I started a new job at a robotics company as the technical lead for their flagship product—a gait rehabilitation device which helps patients relearn how to walk after stroke, spinal cord injury, or other neurological disorders. The hot topic at that time was the critical goal to extend this device with a side-to-side shift of the body’s center of mass—an important element of physiological walking and balance.

Several approaches had been tried, but there was no feasible solution in sight. The message was very clear: “We want to be on the market yesterday.” And it was my job to make this happen. Have you ever had an experience where everyone was working on a very challenging problem, and you saw a very simple solution? Then you thought, “Hey, wait a second—if it were so easy, someone else would have thought of it before,” right?

Two years into the job, this happened exactly. I saw a very simple solution to our problem, and I doubted it. “Hey, wait a second—people have been working on this for years. What am I missing here?” So I did what anyone would do—I waited until my three-month trial period was over and started an underground project quietly to find out if the idea would work.

I had no money, no resources, but I had good luck. An excellent and cheap master’s intern showed up. Within one month, we came out of the ground with a proof of concept and later a functional model. Together with a super talented team, within ten months, we transformed “no way” into “product ready for sale.”

One may say this was an example of thinking outside the box. Well, okay. Of course, I was—literally—outside the box. I was brand-new, and no, I didn’t smoke anything. I just didn’t know that the problem was so difficult.

Now let’s roll back a couple of years. This time, at the start, I was leading the development of a device for sorting grains one at a time at very high speed. Six months into the job, I was fully absorbed inside the box this time. But a critical issue turned into a roadblock—we had no choice. We had to stop. So I looked at the device for days, stared at it, thinking, “There has to be an easier way out—gotta be, and I’m gonna bloody find it.” And out of the blue, I did. I saw that if I rotated this like that, if I moved that that way, not only could I solve the problem, but I could also get rid of one of two conveyors and one of two pumps.

So, I took it apart, made the whole change, and voilà—problem solved. The best part? The device complexity and cost drivers were instantly cut by half.

Some people say simplicity is beauty. I say simplicity is money. Be it robots or physical products in general, simplicity comes with a long list of cost benefits: fewer simpler parts, lower development costs, shorter time to market, lower production cost, less maintenance—I can go on all night.

But we’re all wondering here, though, right? How do you find this simple solution? I also don’t know. For me, it comes when it comes. It was so easy to think out of the box when I was brand-new, but you can’t hire someone new every time you need a simple solution—not sustainable. Another time, it took months plus a roadblock to get to a simpler solution.

How do you know that a simpler solution—or simple solution—even exists? You don’t know. Or at least I don’t know. What I do know is that as soon as we believe our problem is difficult and that there is no easy way out—then there won’t be. Plus, we’d also stop others from trying.

Now, let’s move on to lesson number two. Knowing lesson number one, I get stuck anyway—well, life is hard.

This very early phase of a new product development, where all you have is a great idea, is challenging but exciting. Everywhere you look, you find uncertainties: How will you develop it? How much will it cost? What will the customers say? All is based on imagination at this time. So your customer feedback may also be very diverse.

I was exactly in such an early phase of a new product idea: an overground gait rehabilitation device for neurological patients to relearn to walk. Patients must train walking a lot on the ground, except they’re not able to walk. We were very excited by the possibility to support a part of a patient’s body weight—just by the needed amount—while walking, essentially equivalent to reducing gravity. This would empower patients to train safely, intensively, and physiologically, deciding where they want to go from room to room.

We were all busy talking to customers, looking for partners—until we started to stall. We couldn’t move without new information, and we couldn’t get new information without moving. Innovating a new product can be complex—sometimes there is no easy way out.

In the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving an F**,* Mark Manson quoted a mantra: “If you get stuck, don’t just sit there. Do something, and the answer will follow.”

Perfect sense—but do what? If I knew what to do, I wouldn’t be stuck in the first place.

So I thought, how about doing something easy? Do something simple—just make a very small hole. It won’t get me out, but maybe I’ll learn something. I decided to find out how far we could get with the simplest possible solution for detecting patients’ movement and following them, because it was the problem I considered most challenging. Also, with an alternative simple, low-cost drive mechanism—even though it comes with a compromise. Because with the mechanism needed to follow patients from behind, as in the original idea, it would be very costly.

To make things easy, I did it once again underground, this time with two master’s interns. You’d think my boss would have detected a pattern by now. But I had a change of policy. Within four months—and I have to say, completely unexpected—our way-too-simple solution was able to follow a healthy person. And with something to show, we could also get more concrete customer feedback. This small step got us out of this cloud of risky uncertainty into, “Hey, maybe this is something easy to do after all.”

In ten months, our product was in the clinic for the first test. In another ten months, the product was on the market. The plus point: our way-too-simple solution landed us at a fraction of our initial cost estimate.

These experiences have certainly transformed the way I think and approach problems. I’d like to close by sharing two rules I use when I don’t know how to solve a problem:

Rule number one: Complex problems don’t always need complex solutions. Sometimes, a solution is very easy. However, the moment you decide that your problem is difficult and that there is no easy way out—then there won’t be. What’s important is: don’t stop others from trying.

Rule number two: Even if you get stuck, do something. Don’t just sit there. Do something easy—something simple. Make a small hole. Maybe it moves you forward, maybe it doesn’t, but doing nothing will definitely get you nowhere.

Now, let’s get back to this person in your office with a simple solution to your problem. What will you do now?

Thank you.
[Applause]