The Atlas Ascender – is a powered rope or cable ascender/descender capable of, for instance,

• equipment hauling
• military special operations (rapidly and quietly scaling a building
• rescue operations (capable of retrieving casualty in litter and rescuer)

This image doesn’t do it justice. There’s a video clip on the Atlas site .  The inventor was an MIT student when he developed this – reportedly as an entry in a DOD-sponsored competition.