Prosperous Robotics brings mobility technology company to USD Discovery District

Before there was a company, a patent or a national network of robotics experts, there was a dining room table on a farm outside Viborg.

Michael Bankowski was caring for a client with ALS and Parkinson’s disease, a former teacher and coach whose mind remained sharp even as his body made daily movement increasingly difficult.

“He physically couldn’t even go from his bed to his bathroom without assistance,” Bankowski said.

The two began researching technology that could help. They looked for a device that would support the client’s independence, adapt to his changing mobility and give him more control over everyday movement.

They could not find it.

So Bankowski sketched one.

“At his dining room table, I sketched a robotic walker that had robotic arms that could shape-shift and manipulate itself and empower the human to utilize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses,” he said. “He looked at it and said, ‘Michael, that is it.’”

That sketch became ROSE — a robotic caregiver concept named for Bankowski’s mother, Rose, a longtime nurse who spent years serving veterans.

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