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HAL Exoskeleton Assisted Mountain Climbing

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the just-plain-hawesome dept.

OzPeter writes "The Age is reporting that two experienced mountain climbers will wear Japanese HAL exoskeletons to assist in carrying a quadriplegic and a muscular dystrophy sufferer to the summit of a Swiss mountain. Although they will be starting only 280 meters below the summit, it will still be an impressive feat." Slashdot covered the HAL exoskeleton late last year.

3 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Extreme conditions by jimmyhat3939 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This seems like a great test and demonstration of this kind of technology in a relatively extreme environment. I know several people on SlashDot have argued that the machinery wouldn't be able to handle the kinds of conditions you might confront when needing to rescue someone or in a war. This is exactly the kind of demonstration they need to do to push this kind of project forward.

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  2. Ummm. by Skiron · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "Although they will be starting only 280 meters below the summit"

    Might as well find the nearest hill where they live and save all the expense.

  3. Mountain rubbish by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A low altitude hill climb would also be far easier to clean up after, film etc, but I guess does not have the same wow factor. Most high altitude missions leave behind a huge mess. I have visions of the HAL mission leaving a trail of spent AA batteries.

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