OBJECTIVES To assess oxygen uptake (VO2), blood lactate concentration ([La(b)]), and heart rate (HR) response during indoor and outdoor sport climbing. METHODS Seven climbers aged 25 (SE 1) years, with a personal best ascent without preview or fall (on sight) ranging from 6b to 7a were assessed using an indoor vertical treadmill with artificial rock hand/foot holds and a discontinuous protoco...

Objectives—To assess oxygen uptake (V~O2), blood lactate concentration ([Lab]), and heart rate (HR) response during indoor and outdoor sport climbing. Methods—Seven climbers aged 25 (SE 1) years, with a personal best ascent without preview or fall (on sight) ranging from 6b to 7a were assessed using an indoor vertical treadmill with artificial rock hand/foot holds and a discontinuous protocol w...

OBJECTIVE The superficial location of renal transplants places them at risk for traumatic damage. Significant injuries have been reported from automobile seat belts, for example. This study was designed to assess the potential for direct transplant injury from the use of climbing harnesses. METHODS Ten patients with kidney transplants were fitted with a variety of climbing harnesses after the...

Despite significant research focused on running robots, very little progress has been made towards legged robots that are capable of climbing in natural environments. Unlike their running counterparts, climbing robots must generate hand or foot holds capable of pulling them toward the substrate. The majority of efforts to develop climbing robots have been for urban settings with smooth glass or...

The goal of this thesis was to build a simple toy rock climbing robot, and to explore problems related to grasping, path planning, and robot control. The robot is capable of climbing a wall of pegs either under manual control through a host system and an infrared interface, or on the basis of a set of pre-recorded keyframes. In addition, the robot can climb certain peg configurations using a cy...