offbeat rc
BY TOM ROSS
WARFIGHTER
ENGAGED
W
arfighter Engaged was founded by Ken Jones, Nick Korinis, and Cpl. David Bixler. Ken and
Nick are engineers in New Jersey, and David is a double amputee patient at Walter Reed
National Military Medical Center, one of the premier amputee care centers in the world. Ken
and Nick have a good number of contacts in the military and have made quite a few friends
over the years. One day at a Super Bowl party at Walter Reed NMMC, Ken met some injured veterans and
was immediately inspired. Ken returned to Walter Reed afterwards and continued to be astounded by the
people he met. There were wounded warriors of all types, ranging from vets with nerve damage to those
missing fingers and limbs, and worse. All of them are everyday people coping with difficult situations, and
there’s nothing they’d like more than for things to get back to normal somehow.
A few weeks ago, an email popped into my inbox
that changed my perspective on RC cars forever.
The message detailed the applause-worthy efforts
of Warfighter Engaged, an organization that creates
custom adaptive controls for injured armed forces
veterans, focusing largely on radio-controlled cars and
video games. I picked up my phone immediately and
dialed the number, eager to find out as much as I could.
Warfighter Engaged was founded by Ken Jones and
Nick Korinis, both of whom work as engineers in New
Jersey. Ken and Nick also have quite a few contacts in
the military and have made friends over the years. One
day they met some injured veterans at a Super Bowl
party and were inspired to pay a visit to Walter Reed
A custom-made joystick
provides two-channel
output instead of the
trigger and wheel on
this Traxxas controller;
the whole assembly is
attached to a wheelchair
when it’s time for some
bashing.
Army Medical Center, one of the premier amputee care
centers in the world, and they were astounded by the
people they met. There were wounded warriors of all
types, ranging from vets with nerve damage to those
missing fingers and limbs, and worse. All of them were
everyday people coping with difficult situations, and
there’s nothing they’d like more than for things to get
back to normal somehow.
There are countless support groups dedicated to the
rehabilitation and empowerment of these veterans, but
to the surprise of Ken and Nick, nobody was helping
out with the hobby side of things. A lot of guys simply
wanted to get back into playing video games or driving
around their favorite RC car, but it’s hard to move a
joystick when you’re missing a thumb or to pick up a
controller when you have no arms. It was immediately
clear to Ken and Nick what needed to be done, and they
dove right in.
One of the first cases they tackled was
Marine Sgt. John Peck, a quad
amputee injured in an IED
explosion in Afghanistan. A
standard pistol grip controller
just wasn’t doing the
trick, and so Ken and
Nick set out flexing
their engineering
backgrounds and
got to work making
modifications. David
“It feels good
started a web portal
to be able to do
for other warfighters
something that I
to get involved. They
enjoy. I get to go
dug out an old Team
Associated vehicle they
outside and race,
had sitting around and
jump, and destroy
began experimenting,
stuff with my RC
mostly tearing into the
cars. At first I kept
controller. When you
wrecking and
break things down,
a radio-controlled
destroying them,
car really only needs
but after I met Ken
two different inputs:
and he adapted
one for steering and
them for me, I was
one for throttle. Most
Marine Sgt. John Peck, a quad
amputee injured in Afghanistan,
was one of the first cases tackled by Warfighter Engaged.
no longer the
worst driver! It’s
just nice to be able
to go outside and
do something you
enjoy and only
have to worry
about taking them
to a hobby shop
every day to get
repaired.” -Marine
Sgt. John Peck
APRIL 2013 111
offbeat rc
Above: John has several
vehicles in his RC fleet, all of
which can be operated from
his wheelchair. Left: A simple
toggle is installed like a trainer
switch to alternate between
standard and custom controls.
This is used to allow someone
to get a nitro engine started
before handing over control to a
disabled operator.
standard controllers use simple potentiometers (or
pots), simple electronic components widely used
to record the position of things like volume control
knobs and joysticks. All that was needed now was to
find a way to capture some type of control output and
couple that to the controller’s input, mimicking what
would normally have been produced by the trigger
and steering wheel. John regularly uses a modified
joystick on his wheelchair, and so a similar control
interface was devised for use with the RC transmitter.
It wasn’t long before John was out bashing his favorite
rides just like he always used to, only with a slightly
different controller. The beauty of this process is that
It wasn’t long before John was
out bashing his favorite rides
just like he always used to,
only with a slightly different
controller.
the vehicles themselves don’t need to change at all,
just the way that they are driven. John’s local hobby
shop apparently very much approves of this change
in his life; John has a much increased appetite for
replacement parts now that he’s driving his cars again.
Ken continues to make regular visits to Walter
Reed NMMC while Nick helps to design and modify
controllers to support the group’s efforts. They spend
their personal time (and gas money) to help other
wounded warriors recover some of what they have lost
and get back into their beloved hobbies. Thanks to a
few new high-tech tricks like 3D printing (aka additive
manufacturing), Ken and Nick are able to turn around
prototypes and custom rigs faster and more efficiently.
They’ve received donations of parts and controllers,
saving them time and money and allowing them to help
more veterans more efficiently. If you’re interested in
the latest happenings of this incredible program, be
sure to check out their page on Facebook at
facebook.com/wfengaged.
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8/15/12 9:06 AM