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Robot Eats Flies to Generate Power

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the carnivorous-automotons dept.

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.'"

5 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. Killing Robots by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    1. Re:Killing Robots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just follow that locig a little farther...

      We don't have the rights to kill animals...
      We don't have the rights to kill plants...

      Oops, I just killed some tiny single-celled organism by breathing!

      Oh no; I'm no longer sick. I must have killed the virus/bacteria trying to kill me!

      I should just kill myself and get it over with.
      .
      .
      .
      Do I have the rights to do that?

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      Please realize that rights are the sole domain of humans.

  2. I wonder if it could eat other bugs.... by rubberbando · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If they made one that ate mosquitos, they'd make a fortune cashing in on the annual West Nile Disease scare. :)

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    DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
  3. Re:Wait... by russx2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, and bye bye to the dragonflies who dine on them. So then we can knock a few breeds of bird off the non-extinct list who find their daily quota of dragon-like flies diminishing. And then of course the algaes around lakes grow out of control killing off the fish.

    Everything has its place in the chain :-)

  4. Wait a minute here... by d474 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "...military monitoring of, say, temperature or toxic gas concentrations..."
    Why would the military have the need to be monitoring toxic gas levels with robots that use flies as an energy source? Well...

    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.
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