Smelly robot eats flies to generate its own power

[BERIGAN]

Smelly robot eats flies to generate its own power

September 9, 2004

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British scientists are developing a robot that will generate its own power by eating flies.

The idea is to produce electricity by catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells that will break down sugar in the insects' skeletons and release electrons that will produce an electric current.

"Called EcoBot II, the robot is part of a drive to make 'release and forget' robots that can be sent into dangerous or inhospitable areas to carry our remote industrial or military monitoring of, say, temperature or toxic gas concentrations," New Scientist magazine said yesterday.

Chris Melhuish and his team, who are developing the robot, have to manually feed the flies to EcoBot II because they are still designing some type of pump to suck the insects into it.

"One of the great things about flies is that you can get them to come to you," he said.

Hence the downside of the fully autonomous robot: it will have to use sewage or excrement to attract the flies and is bound to smell appallingly.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/08/...l?oneclick=true

[Jazzmoose]

Oh. Shit.

[RDK]

Oh sure. And how long before these robots "evolve" and start eating humans???

[Jazzmoose]

Hey, just hang out with people who smell worse than you do, and you'll be safe!

[Jim Alfredson]

I like smelly robots. They make me feel superior to them even though they can shatter my bones with their super-robot strength and shoot lasers out of their eyes!