Exoskeleton Assisted Mountain Climbing

[YankeyMCC]

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A Japanese quadriplegic plans to climb to the peak of a Swiss mountain by riding piggyback on a mountaineer who will get some extra muscle from a robot suit.

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Uchida - left paralysed from the neck down after a spinal cord injury in a 1983 traffic accident - will make the final ascent to the 4,164-metre peak with the help of alpinist Ken Noguchi, 33.

He would carry Uchida on his back with the aid of a robot known as HAL, Saigo said.

HAL, which stands for hybrid assistive limb, is a type of wearable robot or motorised exoskeleton.
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http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/robot-suit-will-help-quadriplegic-scale-the-heights/2006/04/04/1143916503382.html

Ok this is cool. Anyone else here a fan of the old cartoon "Exosquad" :)