This Disaster Robot Would Climb Ladders in the Pouring Rain to Rescue You

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, maybe you can hire E2-DR. That’s the name of Honda’s latest prototype disaster relief robot, and as IEEE Spectrum reports, it’s an impressive piece of machinery. How impressive, exactly? Well, according to Honda it can, among other things: walk at 2.5 miles per hour, step over eight-inch obstacles, climb stairs, navigate rubble, squeeze through 20-inch gaps, and even climb a vertical ladder under inch-per-hour rain (presumably without frying its circuits). They’re things that many humanoid robots have tried to do in the past—though rarely with guaranteed success.