(A Japanese University postrgraduate student, Takeru Sakurai, tests the powered "HAL-5" robotic walking suit. Two disabled Japanese are planning to scale the 4,164-meter (13,661-foot) Breithorn peak in the Swiss Alps aided by mountaineers wearing the futuristic robotic walking suits, project members said. Photo: AFP/File/Yoshikazu Tsuno)

TOKYO (AFP) - Two disabled Japanese are planning to scale the 4,164-meter (13,661-foot) Breithorn peak in the Swiss Alps aided by mountaineers wearing futuristic robotic walking suits, project members said.

The August climb will be the first trial of technology developed by Japanese researchers who hope it will benefit the physically disabled as well as Japan's burgeoning elderly population.

The battery-powered suit, code-named HAL, detects muscle movements through the natural electrical currents that pass over the surface of the skin and anticipates the next move. In this way, it aids movement and enhances the strength of the wearer.

Seiji Uchida, 43, who has been wheelchair-bound since a car accident in 1983, will be carried up Breithorn by his friend and physical therapist Takeshi Matsumoto, who will wear HAL.

They will be joined by Kyoga Ide, a 16-year-old boy with muscular dystrophy, who will ascend the mountain on the shoulders of a climber wearing the suit.

Uchida said that since seeing a photograph of Switzerland on a calendar while recuperating from his car accident the dream of visiting the country had buoyed him during three years of intense rehabilitation.

"Just to climb Breithorn, it would be more efficient to use a sled than to carry a person with disabilities," Uchida told AFP. "But if we can successfully make use of the robot suit, we can also use it for more casual purposes such as hiking and trekking to nearby mountains."

With Uchida weighing 50 kg (110 pounds), the addition of his own weight and that of the suit will see Matsumoto carrying more than 150 kg up the mountain.

Uchida said he was worried about the snow melting ahead of his expedition, as that would make his friend's task more difficult.

He pursued his ambition of mountaineering in Switzerland after seeing HAL unveiled on television last year by Yoshiyuki Sankai, a professor and engineer at Tsukuba University who developed the suit.

The party will be led by prominent Japanese alpinist Ken Noguchi.