Many of us have the unfounded notion that Japan is swarming with robots. Okay, well it might not be completely unfounded, but most of them aren’t designed to take the lead in an unpredictable disaster situation. For all its expertise with robotics, Japan was unable to deploy robots during the Fukushima meltdown that could have saved lives or even made it possible to stop the meltdown in the first place. Now, Honda is designing a new version of ASIMO that could be useful in a dangerous setting to keep humans out of harm’s way.

ASIMO is arguably the most advanced humanoid robot in the world, so why didn’t Honda put its multi-million dollar investment on the line during Fukushima? It’s not the cost, it’s that ASIMO would have been essentially useless. Despite being able to walk, carry objects, and even break into a short sprint, it’s not capable of navigating the chaotic environment of a damaged nuclear reactor. Just one bit of rubble in the way and suddenly your multi-million dollar robot has fallen over and broken after accomplishing nothing of value.

This obvious shortcoming has led Honda engineers to begin work on prototype disaster response robots. With all the work that has been done on ASIMO over the years, Honda already has a working robot that’s able to negotiate obstacles and climb ladders. The robot’s design is described in two papers that were presented to the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. One explains the way the robot can shift from bipedal to quadrupedal when necessary to squeeze under something, and the other covered the make use of ladders and narrow walkways.