That is essentially what the Military is doing with some of their small robot gun platforms. In truth you would not even need the joystick (on the chair), the power electronics to control the chair motors is currently off the shelf hardware and can be interfaced directly by model airplane RC controls. I'd be a little dubious about using the Internet for "real time" control of any remote vehicle as I don't know what response time could reasonably be expected of the control loop. You wouldn't want your "little guy" to run into a "dead spot" and wind up headlong in traffic!
The difference between your idea and the powered exoskeleton is a wheel chair does no (or very little) heavy lifting and thus requires relatively low power actuators. Direct electric drive is practical as are battery packs. The exoskeleton however is intended for "heavy lifting" which requires power. The highest power density available (horsepower per cubic foot) is hydraulic and so makes a powered exoskeleton possible. Notice "possible" is not necessarily practical. The actual source of power and cooling have yet to be addressed by the prototypes demonstrated. They do look promising however. GtG
actually, it is pretty heafty in the drive department. It was built to Medicare specs with a maximum 300 pound weight. at the max weight 55ah batteries will give it a 12 mile range, so who knows what the range would be without all the weight.
As far as the inet connection goes, Qwest has a broadband connection at 15mbs covering the entire town, so I don’t think it would be a problem for dead spots.
I am just playing with it anyway in my mind, but if I take any action I’ll forward the story to you, if you are interested.
.....Bob