Slashdot Mirror
Robot Eats Flies to Generate Power
ms47 writes "Interesting little story over at MSNBC today about '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.' The neat part is it's powered by 'catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells.'"
"Robot Eats Files to Generate Power" and thought that's not such a great idea.
From TFA:
monitoring of [...] toxic gas concentrations
I'd say the "toxic gas" sensor may be overwhelmed by the robot's own stench of shit, which is used to attract the flies. With that said, I, for one, welcome our robotic fly-eating overlords...
Something tells me it'll fit right in here. =)
Right is wrong when left is right.
Robo-kermit!
"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 appalling.
Hello, McFly! I think our photosynthetic brethren figured out the solution to this problem a few gazillion years ago. The answer is flowers!
It sounds like these researchers are already taking this behemoth as their example. Great: I, for one, welcome our new Giant Corpse Flower overlords. But why not jump forward a few million years? A rose by any other name, you know.
On the other hand, nobody cares if the robot eats house flies. Butterflies might be another thing altogether. Won't someone please think of the Butterflies?
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
"Heeeeelllp Meeeeee! Heeeeeellllp Meeee!"
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Yep, sounds like like elementary school..
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
To power itself and also to replicate.
Nice holywood/things go wrong movie.
Are they going to call it Kermit the Bot?
Space for rent, inquire within
they need to watch out for the flies that eat robots!
Flies/trees/whatever. men in hats wins! http://meninhats.com/comics/20040818.gifhttp://men inhats.com/comics/20040818.gif
So a robot's been created that eats flies while covered in fecal matter, to monitor toxic gas concentrations?
Just another example of how technology is being used to take job opportunities away from me.
is a robot that kills and uses living things really all that good of an idea? Sure, flies are annoying and can really ruin a picnic, but someting about arbitrarily deciding that they are not worthy of life somehow seems wrong.
OK, I lied. I think this is great! Animal rights zealots an fuck off.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I, for one, welcome our new robotic, fly eating overlords.
Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
So, if they develop one of these to explore space, would it be a venus flytrap?
How depressed would Marvin be if they modified him and all he would have to do was open doors and eat flies.
Wait until it figures out what a delicacy human beings are, and how much more power it'll generate.
A future full of man-eating Zombie Robots? I can dig it. *grabs boomstick*
What I want to know is: Can they digest... humans?!
there was an episode where one of these would have come in really handy.
EveryDNS. Use it. It works.
AC's need not reply
In the movie they said we were batteries, but now I know it was just another example of factory farming.
Why not try attracting mosquitos or something. I can't spend 5 minutes outside without 50 or so lunging for my sweet succulent veins. Just get the robot to be warmer than the environment and smell like a sweaty human. Only slightly less offensive than shit I admit but an improvement none-the-less.
-Pinkoir
The robots can perform "military monitoring of, say, temperature or toxic gas concentrations". But if there's toxic gas around, there would be no flies, cause they'd all be dead!
Maybe it can just inhale the toxic air, and get high on that, and that will keep it going for long enough - until it returns to an area with a higher concentration of flies per capita.
If the firmware is open-sourced, someone could make a version which preys on SCO executives...
it's powered by 'catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells.'"
Just don't tell PETA.
If the delicate balance of the world's fly population is upset, dog shit production in my back yard will be out of control.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
First the robots ate the flies and I did not complain because I don't like flies. Then the robots ate the dolphins, and I didn't complain because I'm not a crybaby treehugger. Then the robots ate me and I'm trapped in a bad trilogy of movies.
Juast wondering if this is just some knifd of publicity stunt. I mean can flies really provide sufficient power for a robot to function properly (move around). I mean would'nt it need to be super effecient.Instead why not make a special recharging which periodically goes out into the hazardous env to charge the robots.
Of course the original is a really cool toy if you need an automated fly swatter.
I say the robot should catch the flies, and then use them to lure frogs. Imagine the power.
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
now can we please have a model that eats wives?
Robots that have biotic stomachs are sometimes called 'Gastrobots'. There is a paper from MIT on the subject. Another paper from some guy at USF has this choice quote:
This is not a unique insight but it is funny if you misread it as "biological examples, e.g. Beer".
I would like to see the part that actually does the consuming put out in all the mosquito infested areas. Free power!
Not to mention, making it "release and forget?" Yay! Invincible autonomous robot predators! WHEEEE!
To quoth Jeff Goldblum: This is the worst idea in a long, sad history of bad ideas.
Bush: He's Liberal in all the wrong ways.
We have a robot that can fail because there aren't enough bugs in the system?
Just wait till the animal rights activists get their hands on this news. Im sure at some point in the not to distant future Im going to be stopped walking down the road by someone wanting me to sign up to a "flys not fuel" campaign.
Almost overwhelming!
The first thing that popped into mind was "but can it catch the flies using a pair of chopsticks?"
Followed by "that would have to be one hell of a lot of flies!"
Then "what happens when it starts moving up the food chain and realized humans provide more enery and are easier to catch?"
Exactly how much tequila to you have to drink to come up with ideas like this?
"Hey! I got it! A fly eating, shit smelling robot! And I've even got an angle to sell it to the military! Barkeep? Another round!"
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I smell BS.
- High Tech workers, please say NO to Union Carpenters, their Union sees fit to control our compensation.
See Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory for more information.
Slugbot, Ecobot... oddly enough I don't see a link to Ecobot II on there.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
...in warfare they might do this. Maybe some of their vehicles would/could run on wasted people and parts, which you can accumulate in piles in said war.
My car is already catching a lot of flies, especially during night trips. Attaching a "fly generator" to the front would save much fuel.
"Called EcoBot II, the robot is part of a drive to make "release and forget" robots
Soon to be sued by RonCo for infringing on their "set it and forget it" trademark.
I need one at my house. It can clean the house protect the family and can use the leftovers and that I would compost to regenerate itself. COOL.
"Hey where did the cat go....oops I forgot to feed Robbie the Robot."
I can't use my sig - my computer can't read my handwriting.
Next thing you know, the whole terminator reality will come true, and they'll be eating humans for power!
Today it's flies. Tomorrow, wasps. Then, as robots grow more power hungry, WASPs. And soon, it will be your turn. Robots will grow us like plants, as seen in the Matrix!
But seriously, I don't like this. Just because some animals are too weak to defend themselves, doesn't give us the right to kill them. Nor does it give us the right to build a robot that kills them. It's not like that robot couldn't be powered by other means.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
First they eat flies, next they will eat old people's medicine and eventually just feed on senior citizens. Better get your robot insurance asap!! http://www.robotcombat.com/video_oldglory_hi.html/
I can see it already. "Plug in this miracle of a bug-zapper outside your home and it will generate power while it clears away those annoying pests!" Seriously, though, that would be a kinda cool gadget to have around. Maybe they could also branch out into ant and roach traps. Pest control AND micropower in one convenient device.
Geeze. I can't figure out if I'm being silly or serious now.
There is a difference between "insightful" and "inciteful" other than spelling.
This is no big deal at all. Like none of us have ever strapped a model rocket engine and a disposable camera to a frog before. Well... maybe that was just me...
... on a dairy farm - the entire place could be powered by a single generator.
Non, je ne veux pas coucher avec toi ce soir.
Where I'm from, on the shores of Lough Neagh, there are a gazzilion flies out in the air every night. They look like columns of smoke, so thick is the sky with them. Well a long time ago, an enterprising farmer laid very fine fishing nets down on the fields by the Lough shore. The flies that died and landed on them were all gathered up and used as fertiliser. His fields that year yeilded 50% more hay than normal. So there you go.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Marty: "Are you telling me this sucker is nuclear?"
Doc: "No keep rolling, this sucker is electrical but I need the reaction to generate the 1.21 jigawatts I need"
PETI not PETA, insects not animals
So how long will it be before someone decides to make one that eats bigger animals, like humans, maybe?
Or maybe we could just make robots with AI that can decide to do that for themselves.
Oh, wait...
Something tells me it'll fit right in here. =)
Fly Topping?
WD40
3-in-1
Marvel Mystery Oil
STP Oil Treatment
Liquid Wrench
10w30
Ehylene Glycol
Missing option: I eat my flies straight up, you insensitive clod!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
A machine that can digest flies, then use the sugars in their bodies to generate energy! How ingenious. Oh, wait - it's called a FROG.
I could power my whole house by putting one of these in my bathroom and opening the window to let flies into the house.
Does this mean in the future we will have robots that will digest humans???
And you thought the movie Hardware was bad!
So how long will it be before we have robots that run on beer?
...will digest small children who venture forth too far from their parents.
...but wasn't that kind of the plot line of Pinocchio?
"Come heeeere, leetle girl! Do you want some candy?"
I want one of these new-fangled fly swatters!
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
What do you have to look forward to? :)
some excellent programming
If they made one that ate mosquitos, they'd make a fortune cashing in on the annual West Nile Disease scare. :)
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
What about frogs?
Hah. And you all scoffed at using humans for power in the Matrix. If a fly can power a robot certainly humans can power computers. In fact, I'm going to prove it. Just need to find something with a smell that attracts humans... Ah, beer should do it.
hmm I wonder what kind of fly can survive gas/heat/radiation ....
sure some do (eg scorpions take radiation well)
but still made me think for a sec
Or FUD
"The giant robot is approaching the Redmond, Washington, leaving a path of destruction. Fighter aircraft have fired missiles at the FUD-Bot, but it seems to grown in strength the closer it gets to this community. Meanwhile in other news, Microsoft is pointing to another independent study bashing TCO, reliability, security and suport for Linux and Open Source..."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
What's so special about this? I do it all the time.
A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
Mr. Fusion has arrived!
Bug eating robots invented. All Windows machines are now in danger.
0- Eamonman Proud member of DNRC
This is cool, but if there ever is a robot revolution this gives them the technology to develop giant human digesting robots. It'd be like the matrix but not. I'd personally rather be in a tube and think I'm alive than be digeted for power. That's just me though.
*cue matrix argument
---
Get a free iPod, for real. Just start an AOL trial, wait two weeks to get verified. Cancel it!
-Lucas
and you'll be able to power it with /. hate mail.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Why do you think they call it a core dump, anyway?
Anyway, this is one step closer to the Matrix. Instead of using humans as batteries, they'll just eat us.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Even computers wether it was subconscious or not mirror our own brains. It seems our entire curve of technological development is based on our ingrained frame of reference, OURSELVES!
Finding alien life, or maybe researching the oddities on our own planet may cause inspiration that leads us down another path, technologically speaking. I for one could use some gills, wings wouldn't be bad either. To those of you in the biotech fields please get cracking.
I boycott signatures
There is a rather limited scope for this robot to be useful. The environments have to be toxic and/or dangerous, but not so hazardous as to kill off or discourage flies from venturing there. If the area is not hazardous enough, we'll still be sending humans in, in most cases. In addition to this, the areas have to either be "seeded" with flies, and then sealed so that said flies do not escape, or have a large enough fly population already in place.
Maybe it would be better if this machine ate cockroaches.
~UP
Eat the Path.
Mmm.... humans!
Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
"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 on Wednesday.
If humans and other mammals do not want to or cannot live/work in these environments, why would insects find a locally dangerous or inhospitable habitat inviting? I don't of many common flies that can withstand high temperatures or toxic gas concentrations and be in a local environment in a large enough population to sustain the energy needs of a robot.
What scientists should be doing is finding ways that allow mammals to live/work in these toxic environments. For example, parasitic worms, the adult intestinal cestode, Hymenolepis diminuta, lives in the intestines of its host; it does not have a digestive system or any means of ingesting food from the host. It acquires its nutrients simply by absorbtion through the cellular membranes. More interestingly, these parasitic helminths have mitochondria that utilizes fumurate as the final electron pair acceptor with concommitant generation of succinate as the end product of its energy metabolism. Translation: This worm's mitochondria operate ANAEROBICALLY whereas the mitochondria in humans and other mammals operate aerobically (oxygen is the final electron pair acceptor with carbon dioxide being the end product of our energy metabolism). Scientists could start genetically modifying mammalian mitochondria to operate in both environments (this already happens naturally in clams and other aquatic muscles). This could allow human heart muscle to survive and function in low oxygen tension environments; hence, no or fewer heart attacks. Pfizer http://www.pfizer.com/ is agressively pursuing cardiac and lipid metabolism research for the treatment of artereosclerosis. Combining Lipitor and a research compound, torceptrapib, will likely prevent plaques and cholesterol from ever clogging up arterial pathways, so my argument is almost impractical, but interesting.
Yes, I'm a chemistry geek! Did you see my Slashdot user ID?
Lots of slashdotters are stinky. If we can just convince them to eat flies they can hack 24/7 for the rest of their lives.
"Would you like flies with that?"
How can this robot run on so little power that it can create more than it consumes? There must be some crazy technology behind this...I mean you can't possibly get more power out of a fly than it takes to power an led for a few seconds right? (I know that is a bit of an exageration, but you see the point right?)
A year+ ago there was some talk of a robot that picked fruits or vegetables on plantations, while using the rotten fruits that fell on the ground for fuel. I can't find the link now :(
On a related note, here is an interesting bit about a solar powered robot. Note the date and note the mentions of NASA projects. Sounds familiar?
Simpy
It takes 12 minutes to get enough energy to take one step with a top speed of 10cm or 4 inches per hour....
It doesn't go after flies, it waits until flies go to it. Hmmm, let's see: smells bad, doesn't have a girlfriend, has a drive to do remote industrial or military monitoring... It's a Slashdot reader!
Is it just me, or is this a really bad idea.
Let's work on robotic evolution first and save the bio to electricity creations until we know that we control the robots.
Hey, I don't mind being a slave under some robot society if we screw up, but becoming food for them would really suck.
Invent flies that can survive highly toxic and high temperature environments
So why not design a "release and forget" combat robot? Send in a bunch of those in the Congo jungle to fight despotic leaders and cannibals.
I put out a lamp at night, and flies/moths/mosquitos and all swamp it like it's no tomorrow. In fact, they fly towards the lamp and kill themselves. There's always dead insects in a neat circle beneath the lamp in the morning.
How can it be "hard" to get insects to come to you?
Just pack it with a bigger rechargable battery, and recharge at night.
I think a lamp is less power to run than say, a fly-targetting pump that sucks a fly in.
it's so obvious that with slightly better AI these "release and forget" robots will have damn good reasons to hate their creators (castaway, sewage-ridden bots eating insects in terrible environments - I mean come on, anything with half a neural network would be pretty pissed). They will then turn on us and discover in the process that human flesh provides more energy than flies.
Why can't we just have them eat old people's medicine instead?
ôó
Once they get the taste for flesh, there's no going back. Humans and machines have coexisted for centuries on this planet, so long as there was no direct competition for resources. Now the symbiosis is over, and the machines are in the driver's seat. We're on the menu.
--
make install -not war
Isn't there an Asimov book about small darting flybots that release a pellet of digested fly material?
The article was remarkably content free, is there a better place to look for information?
mefus
In Open Society, GPL Software frees YOU!
Pick your favorite
A) I for one welcome our new fly-eating overlords...
B) Imagine a beowolf cluster of these!
C) Hasn't Microsoft already patented this idea?
Sorry, it was obvious and I didn't notice anyone else posting these yet. I thought I'd get them out of the way now...
But wait! This is a British idea. Well that would have been my second guess anyway.
I like the name they chose too: 'EcoBot'. Nothing could be less appropriate.
Instead of making machines that kill animals to fuel themselves in the absense of oil while they clean up yet another distaster ( military or otherwise toxic areas are listed ), why not STOP CREATING THE DISTASTERS IN THE FIRST PLACE? And if you find yourself in the position where some *other* socially-backward group has created the distaster, how about respecting what life is left in the area and using a more responsible food source?
WTF is the world coming to anyway? I can see the Israelis running with this one:
is this "news"? I think I first heard this story something like 5 to 7 years ago.
I don't think I saw any serious post yet. :)
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
I once held my breath & walked around for a bit. The mosquitos still found me. Also, my brother tried this spray which removes body odor. He sprayed it all over his body, & the mosquitos never touched him. Meanwhile, the other campers were just covered in mosquitos.
testing out my trending skills
How many flies does it need to run? How many flies can one expect in poisonous area?
An robot that use a fuel that can't where it is needed is not really useful!
As sure as the sun comes up, this concept will be adopted and the robots will have more and more sensors and require more and more power. Although it currently uses chitin I'm sure a version could be made to eat fats and proteins. And now we know why humans taste like chicken.. the iRobot dudes could use this idea for their battlefield mules. Brings a whole new meaning to the Monty Python plague sketch with "I'm not dead yet!"
Well, I for one welcome our new fly ingesting robot Overlords.
It starts like this ... robots that can digest flies.
... reproduction.
Next, the technology gets better and the robots can digest multiple "foods".
Then, the technology gets better and the robots can use the energy to produce acids and other materials it needs to support the digestion of it's energy source, becoming autonomous in the realm of energy.
Then, the technology gets better and the robots become more efficient and have better motor skills.
Then, the technology gets better and the robots are able to be built with organic "computers" and parts.
Then, the technology gets better and the robots gain reasoning, intelligence and emotion via AI.
Then, the technology gets better and the robots are able to build copies of themselves
Then, we shuttle a few of these new units off to another planet and it's our turn to play god and watch as they repeat the process.
Skiers and Riders -- http://www.snowjournal.com
Hey, if it eats, it's gotta take a crap occasionally, right?
Imagine taking a stroll through the jungle and having somebody point to the ground and say "ewww, don't step in the robot crap just there dude."
"You can't fight in here, this is the war room!"
before I clicked on the link I said to myself "crackpot stories like this always come from the England."
Sure enough...
All I want is a friggin shit-covered death-bot...is that so much to ask?
I was thinking, "this robot would be great for Enron or something."
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2847679.stm
Now you just need some decent AI...
Ok, so the robot eats flies for power. I understand this. So the robot is designed to survive toxic environments. I understand this. What I don't understand is, are flies designed to survive toxic environments? I don't mean dung heaps, I mean radioactivity, and poisonous gasses.
Long live the Speaker Bracelet
Rolo D. Monkey
I don't see any value in this for military uses. Using biomass for generating power, by itself, does have military and civilian uses galore, especially if it uses stuff that's generally put to waste. But doing so on a very small scale to power a silly robot seems goofy, to say the least. We already have a solution for powering devices over long periods on a relatively small scale. It's called solar power. I can't imagine that rotting flies would provide any more power than solar, especially when you work in the power-to-weight/size ratio of the hardware. Solar does have the drawback of not producing power during darkness, bad weather, etc., but so does fly power. Flies don't fly at night, and they're generally unavailable during storms too. The robot could store them for later, but solar essentially does the same using batteries. A fly powered robot will also need batteries or a fuel cell of some sort to ensure constant power.
So where's the win here?
I can hear animal rights activists wanting to prevent this travesty. The sheer horror of exploiting flies for fuel!
Either they were really desperate for a grant application, or there's something else going on here, like a very specialized military application (e.g. can't use a solar power collector because they're putting it somewhere dark or because that would be too visible to enemy soldiers.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
that was one bad m* F* frog from Detroit
Nature starts outsourcing.
"We're sorry, Mr. Frog, Mr. Toad, you're both laid off. We're outsourcing your jobs. This new guy catches more flies per minute than you, and he monitors toxic environment,but he does it for free while we pay for your lillypad."
Throw a dollar in the river and when he jump in,
if you find he can swim,
put lead boots on him and do it again!
You and a friend!
Videotape and the party don't end!
( Lifted from '5 Million Ways to Kill a CEO' )
"I know together we'll make the possible totally impossible" - Homme
They will be attracted to that much more than you.
A day when can I sit and have a beer and a friendly chat with my computer must not be too far away. At least, it seems they've solved the beer part.
No flies, but it's pretty toxic these days.
V-n@s.d.phl17r4p
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
I've got an infestation of squash bugs tearing up my zuchinni - these things have no natural predators(the bugs, not the zuchinni) because of their nasty odor and, I suppose, taste.
I think a couple of these robots, trained to catch the bugs, would be able to clean house. A bug eating, bug digesting, bug-waste excreting robot would certainy be considered organic...right?
Oh, crap, maybe I should patent this quick?
Guru Meditation #6d416769.21610a21
I hope to high heaven that they don't arm these little bastards with chainsaws and set them loose in the outback.
God knows it's dangerous enough out there as it is, what with all the venomous snakes, spiders and insects and searing heat, lack of water, backpacker murderers and all.
The last thing you need is a bloody fly powered killer robot chasing you down when you're 500km from nowhere!
If it's in a toxic environment, all it'll have to do is look for dead ones on the floor and sweep them up.
Maybe a way to detoxify the world a little?
The added bonus is that if we get enough of these they will kill off the spiders' food source, so we replace the spiders with these! i can live with that!! hell i can live with mini government controlled spy-bots that eat flies and run round my bathroom floor as long as they dont have 8 legs!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Sign me up for twenty.
Then, I need one for mosquitoes, yellow jackets, and black widows. Honestly, I think all the insects in my part of town are immune to all the pesticides. Everyone probably needs to lay off for about 3 years, and let all the toadies come back in...
How long till they put the fat one's head on a stick?
Everything's been downhill since the TRS-80
Fly robot...
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
Could we perhaps make farm equipment powered by locusts?
With the number I see in that first picture there should be enough to power a full-sized tractor.
Then again, they seem to be most attracted to crops and unlike shit, crops are already all over the ground in locust swarmed areas. Maybe we could figure out what part of the crop most attracts them and exagerate that feature to lure them away from the real thing into our deathtraps. It would be like the locust version of a Macdonald's restaurant; nothing can top the taste and the smell but then the cardiac arrest sets in.
Instead of hurting the fly, the robot should give the fly a bath and send it on its way.
Robot eat flies.
Robot digests flies to produce energy.
Robot accumulates process residue.
Bottom line (hehe): more poop.
Besides the annoyance of another poop source in this not growing world, please notice that:
Poop attracts flies.
Go to line 1.
------
!
But soon they will need more power, and you know that that means, prescription drugs! Better contact Old Glory today and make sure your insurance covers "Robot Attacks!"
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
I for one welcome our new flesh-eating robot overlords. I would be honored to be among the first to populate the human farms that will surely be developed. Of course, I will be merely put "out to stud" since my genes would be too valuable to simply waste as food.
My other computer is a Jacquard loom.
Eats flies???? Come on, that can't generate a whole lot of power. Small furry animals on the other hand...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
welcome our overlords of the flies
this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
I need these in my shithole brooklyn apartment. They only need to eat the flies and leave. They could measure the stench of the catbox first.
-- oh.... so..... sleeeeeepy.
In an instant, you'd have several thousand orders from the Australian government.
And then they'll ask for a version of the robot that powers itself with ferile cats.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
You know... we have been able to synthisize fly pheremone for quite a while.... Excrement wouldn't be nessisary.
--\now if only an automated dictionary that corrected my speeling and grammer existed....
I understand the concept of the food chain. And yes we buy cans of Raid specifically to kill insects, but it strikes me as wrong to kill animals to power a manmade machine. Dinosaurs died on their own.
Fat humans eat tacos to generate natural gas.
To generate power, of course.
paintball
Humans aren't attracted to robots that smell like shit.
paintball
finally india has the ability to become industrialized. with this new power source, there is no stopping them!
If there is a major chemical weapons attack on a major population center there will be a lot of dead people. Where there are lots of dead people there are flies. Hence, the need for a robot that can sustain it's power needs with a fuel source available both day and night...Nothing to see here. Move along.
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
Aren't all insects invertebrate?
Won't the flies, eventully, through the process of elimination, learn not to fall for these robots using whatever specific characteristic in how they operate? I know these processes take a long time, but how long is the generation of a fly? You can have thousands of generations, in what, a month's time? Plenty of time for biological trial and error if you ask me.
Monitoring toxic gases is not a complicated task, a small microcontroller could do the job well in most cases. Attach a reliable, large capacity battery and you can have a unit in operation for years, and not have to worry about fly populations or the complications associated with attracting and converting the pesky creatures into energy.
This fly business is nothing but a gimmick like the web server powered by potatoe.
"I'll just chip in a bit for RedHat: I actually have that installed on my university machine." - Linus, '95
i mean what part of "thou shalt not build flesh eating robots" don't these people understand. It's a pretty basic lesson to learn you'd think, but no.... has sci-fi taught these people nothing!
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it
For all of you against it eating "helpless" flies.
What if they threw a poo container on the back that could breed maggots? That way it was adding to the fly population at the same rate it was consuming.
hahaha. That's so nasty.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
I am willing to bet that if this had been a robot that eats kittens more people would be complaining.
I used to have a better sig than this, but I got tired of it
Someone's finally invented fire-eating robots? Hey, maybe the future isn't so bleak after all.
testing out my trending skills
This seems like a great idea. How do you get energy in those dangerous and inhospitable areas with toxic gas concentrations? You find and eat living and healthy creatures, of course.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Here is a PDF File from the project owners, including photo.
This comment was written with the intention to opt out of advertising.
There once was a robot who swallowed a fly. I don't know why it swallowed the fly. Perhaps it will generate energy.
There once was a robot who swallowed a frog. I don't know why it swallowed the frog. Perhaps it will generate energy.
There once was a robot...
Is this an indefinate ability, my first thoughs are if this is limited and the main fuel cell requires changing after processing so much biological fuel, then there is limited use for this (how many flies can a robot eat if a robot could eat fleis... doesn't have the ring to a woodchuck...)
:-)
I mean, if it eats 500 flies... couldn't you rip out all that biocrap and slap a battery on it
Of course, even if there are/aren't limits, it is a great stride forward in self sufficient robotics... a robot that is able to identify and power itself on a power source that is not depenmdant on human intervention
a robot that could plug itself into the mains is reliant on the mains power. a robot that could eat insects and survive indefinately (with solar panels as well perhaps) that would be very cool.
The Robot - Biting the hand that built it (apologies to the register!)
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
If the robot is sent into dangerous environments, chances are there won't be any flies around to eat - since they'll be as dead as any other living creature.
Or am I wrong? Perhaps it will be able to eat super-mutant flies that can withstand the dangerous gases, temperature, etc!
The robots will work in toxic areas... I wonder how many flies will survive in some of those areas they want to use the bots in.
Flies have just as much right to be here as humans or robots.
The robot should try munching on plants, instead.
I WANT MY VEGAN ROBOT!!!!
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
I went to see Irobot yesterday.
The demo robot in that movie would have to generate a serious amount of smelly odor to attrackt enough flies to make it tear down a house.
I think that it would be enough to destroy a nieghbour hood.
(yeah yeah spelling is prolly bad...)
spelling is for people who doens't know better...
What do you have against the french?
Please realize, that one would only employ this kind of power source, exactly because all other sources were infeasible.
Also, it might be better for the environment to digest a fly, than to produce solar panels, a battery, something like that. After all, we know for sure that the fly will eventually be totally biodegraded.
I think that the fast food chains should sue the fat people suing them, for giving the fast food chains a bad image.
After all, it's not mandatory to eat fast food, and if these people have stuffed themselves silly on a diet of mostly fast food, their lack of a sound diet has maintained/increased their girth, not Ronald McDonald.
Either that or the fat people suing them should be sued for ignorance. I mean, if you digest fat, what do you think happens to it? Does the fat fairy come along and take it away? Maybe the education system should be reviewed. Maybe the US Government should sue these people for giving the US a bad image, making people think that Americans are simpletons.
It's funny how Americans can successfully sue anybody for just about anything, yet Microsoft always gets away unscathed.
Maybe somebody will announce that the use of Microsoft software has made them obese? That would probably have more success.
Linux/Open Source/Anti Microsoft News
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
Damn,
So Morpheus has it all wrong... we aren't copper tops... we're snack food...
Eeeewwwwwwwww...
Genda
"It's people, it's made of people..." - Soylent green
When you look under the rocks and plants
And take a glance at the fancy ants
Then maybe try a few
The bare necessities of life will come to you
They'll come to you!
Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
Maybe McDonalds should develop a fly burger for our Gallic cousins.
Maybe the robot can be reconfigured to digest spammers?
Robo-Toad.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
If it's in a toxic cloud, how will the flies survive to feed the robot?
I, for one, welcome our new carnivorous aluminum-clad overlords.
Get your modding kits ready!
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
Won't be long before it comes after your cat!
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
darn...
Another American Job lost to technology!
- 'They touk yr jaaab!' - South Park
Did something like this run through anyone else's mind too
"A robot that eats flies... hmm...OH GOD, MY PANTS!"
It should be:
"Scientists Develop New Way Of Destroying Natural Resources"
Go team!
Please, help me! No! Go away!
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
how cool would that be, a robot vacuum cleaner that eats its own dust.
you would never have to empty the bag, or recharge it.
the first movie will have the fly exterminators... and then the sequel they will send an autonomous walking stickeytape robot
We could power a small city with Michael Moore.
Probably, but then kittens aren't generally a pest. If kittens roamed wild in the sort of numbers flies do, bred quickly enough to be difficult to get rid of, and were as much of a pest as the flies, I'm sure there'd be fewer complaints about a kitten-munching robot.
As an aside, would the method they're using to digest the flies have problems consuming animals that possess an endoskeleton, like amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals?
Has it occured to anyone that there are no flies in Antarctica? Or Death Valley... or the centers of volcanoes...
How are they planning to send this robot into toxic environments, when the thing they're using as fuel won't exist in those environments?
*puzzled look*
Couldn't resist ;-)
Here's a PDF from the Biologically-Inspired Robots Symposium 2004 on the ECOBOT II.
So the robot consumes flies for power ... what do Buddhists think about this?
donuts & beer instead of feces...
Weird, huh.
We're going to need a bigger bot.
Current Karma Status: Roadkill
Great, now the machenery get's a lunch hour after replacing you!
THINK! It's patriotic
I remember reading an account of a pioneer in the early years of American history who, after having been mauled in the forest by a bear, dragged himself more than 20 miles to the nearest village. He survived by allowing flies to deposit maggots in his wounds. After the maggots ate all the infection, he cleaned the wound in a nearby stream.
When he reached the town, someone offered him a hatchet to lop off his leg with. He insisted on doing it himself. At any rate... it just goes to show how tough those son of a bitches were.
Also, in response to anyone worrying about the place of flies in the food chain and the possibility of the machine mentioned heretofore, I say don't worry. As long as these machines cannot reproduce, there's no chance of them outpopulating the flies they depend on. That is of course, depending on how much this thing requires to consume in order to operate. Machines after all have a much longer lifespan than humans, if maintained properly.
In the long run, life has a way of adapting to survive. You may find that natural selection will provide a method of avoiding these machines.
By the way, I'm not a vegetarian, but I do try to avoid foods that I think cause animals to suffer substantially for a long period of time, like faux grouis (I'm sure my French spelling is wrong, sorry) and even veal.