Slashdot Mirror
Tiny Aircraft Feeds Itself With Dead Flies
An anonymous reader writes "The research team from southwest England have built a robot which can move and transmit sensor data over a radio link powered solely by unrefined food including dead flies and apples.
The robot, known as Ecobot II, uses a Microbial Fuel Cell as its only power source. By "digesting" its own fuel, the aircraft could become autonomous and operate without the need for refueling, changing batteries or recharging from the mains. In the Microbial Fuel Cell microbes are used to extract electricity directly from food - in this case flies or apple." Several people noted this previous article on the same project.
This sounds just like Mr. Fusion! Definitely more effective if you pour the beer out of the can and then toss in the container.
1.21 Gigawatts!?
Soylent Green!
Soylent Green is people! PEOPLE!
Laws are for people with no friends.
Now I can field an army of autonomous spybots to stalk celebrities without having to refuel them.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
Now if we can only program it to find Sarah Conner.
At what point do they decide that they want human flesh instead of flies/rotten apples?
Or better yet, at what point do they decide that they want to eat our crops instead of flies/rotten apples?
I, for one, welcome our new mechanical locust overlords.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
Make this little robot build copies of itself, from raw materials it collets.
reminds me of a great simpsons quote though... "In this house we obey the laws of Thermodynamics." -- Homer (Simpson)
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
A. the apples i am attempting to eat at my picnic.
B. the flies at my picnic.
C. violation of airspace?
Couldn't a spybot just land on a powerline and get power from induction? Or how about eating something that doesn't move around as much as a fly, like grass or tree sap? Better yet, why stop to power up at all--just use direct solar energy either photovoltaicly or by embedding chloroplasts directly in the vehicle.
There's a dead tiny-fly-eating-aircraft in my soup!
it's okay...i'm sure the governor of California has a plan...
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
Give robot the ability to manipulate it's offspring's hardware.
I think this development could only be considered a fly in the ointment.
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
This is the 15th Commandment that Mosas dropped.
Thou shall not make Flesh Eating Robots!
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
PROFIT!!!!
Given a choice between free speech and free beer, most people will take the beer.
Could you imagine flying on it and getting close to no fuel? Suddenly the pilot tells everyone, "we are looking for large patches of flies in the air to maintain the flight course, but we have no fuel left." Then boom, you crash land in an apple farm only to have the plain eat them before you do, even though it is unable to fly?
Damn tricky plains.
"...microbes are used to extract electricity directly from food - in this case flies or apple."
:D
If that's the case, when will these cool little bots gain the capability to cut out the middleman and huff shit directly into their little hoppers?
Someone let me know. I got a gift idea for Bosses Day.
Don't self powered robots that can EAT humans for power give I, Robot an extra creepy feel?
endit
Does it run Linux?
-Lod
... The scientists also mentioned that they had named two of the robots that showed especially good survival characteristics "Architect" and "Oracle."
Said one of the scientiests, "We believe these two will really push the limits of what is possible with carnivorous robotic machines today and will do great things in the future."
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
I can see it now, the robot spends all it's energy every day hunting flies to sustain itself and can't ever find time to surveil the battlefield.
did you come up with that on the fly?
"Facts are meaningless. You could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true." - Homer Simpson
surely a tiny aircraft could land on a high tension wire and 'fuel' itself off the magnetic field.
it's been a while since physics201 but the inductance from the magnetic fields already occuring everywhere would be a potential power source.
Get sued by Michael Crichton for stealing his idea. ;)
Watch as money gets worthless as tiny robots take over all niches on planet and eventually build a slave race of flies and fruit trees.
Brings a whole new meaning to "Lord of the Flies"...
What's it going to take for this thing to feed on mosquitoes? Live, preferably. And if its possible, where can I get about fifty thousand of these things?
Bloody mosquitoes...
Imagine a beowolf cluster of one of these .. oh wait ... all your flies belong to us .. no uhm, but does it run Linux?
the use of knowledge is highly overrated
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/0 8/221212&tid=216&tid=126&tid=1&tid=14
Not everything is analogous to cars. Car analogies rarely work.
Regular bug spray wont work, Some sort of low level nuke is in order.. EMP in a can anyone?
The moment they make some sorta mechanical killer spider to swallow these flies I'm getting off this rock.
*Looks around the room with great paranoia, theyre here - with their wee robot brains and their beedie robot eyes!!!*
-- Jim.
-- If at first you don't succeed, lie!
just fly a little lower, swarms of birds dissapear into the engines; hey! fruittrees, go lower!!
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Just how long until we started getting SPAM for "Tiny Fly with Camera" great for voyeurs and filming porn!
*grin*
if you really, really must say it, do it right!
... OVERLORDS"
:
"I for one
like Kent Brockman in Deep Space Homer
And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.
I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality,
I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.
"The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck is the day they make a vacuum cleaner."
Ok, I've read the article 2x, and read the other posts, but i'm not seeing any aircraft. Seems the current stage of the technology is a 1kg Ecobot that achieves an astounding 30m/hr - is that fast enough for takeoff?
Oh, to be a fly on the wall when you came up with that joke!
So if the food were say... a piece of fairy cake, would it show you your place in the universe?
It won't be long before we all need this.
"And when they grab you with those metal claws, you can't break free.. because they're made of metal, and robots are strong."
More correctly, possibly a future robot or robotic aircraft might one day feed itself with dead flies, according to the article.
An actual working model that's capable of flight looks to be well in the future. However, another(?) group in England is working on a someone similar design that'll eat garden slugs. That seems far more workable...
Galileo: "The Earth revolves around the Sun!"
Score: -1 100% Flamebait
Prepare to be harvested.
Old Lady #1: When my ex-husband passed away, the insurance company said his policy didn't cover him.
Old Lady #2: They didn't have enough money for the funeral.
Old Lady #3: It's so hard nowadays, with all the gangs and rap music..
Old Lady #1: What about the robots?
Old Lady #4: Oh, they're everywhere!
Old Lady #1: I don't even know why the scientists make them.
Old Lady #2: Darren and I have a policy with Old Glory Insurance, in case we're attacked by robots.
Old Lady #1: An insurance policy with a robot plan? Certainly, I'm too old.
Old Lady #2: Old Glory covers anyone over the age of 50 against robot attack, regardless of current health.
Sam Waterson: I'm Sam Waterston, of the popular TV series "Law & Order". As a senior citizen, you're probably aware of the threat robots pose. Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel. Well, now there's a company that offers coverage against the unfortunate event of robot attack, with Old Glory Insurance. Old Glory will cover you with no health check-up or age consideration. You need to feel safe. And that's harder and harder to do nowadays, because robots may strike at any time.
And when they grab you with those metal claws, you can't break free.. because they're made of metal, and robots are strong. Now, for only $4 a month, you can achieve peace of mind in a world full of grime and robots, with Old Glory Insurance. So, don't cower under your afghan any longer. Make a choice. Old Glory Insurance. For when the metal ones decide to come for you - and they will.
The Tools Of Ignorance wanna be a tool?
He's on vacation, but he said he'll be back.
"...its ability to power itself by digesting its fuel is a major advance..."
They don't explain how the 'back-end' of the digestion process works. Guess they'll need to create even smaller robots with pooper-scoopers.
> Robot feces?
You obviously don't work in marketing. It's called iPoop®.
Yes we should definately spend our time researching future power sources that consume "food" and oxygen then convert it into energy, waste and CO2. Yes that's definately the best idea. We don't have enough of that on this planet. Real robots should be like real men. They should eat meat and burp.
Making something that consumes waste, CO2, and sunlight then converts it into oxygen and energy is a stupid idea. Only idiots would take this approach. Solar cells are for tree huggers and commies.
So, I can see how an aircraft might get FLIES stuck to it, but Apples? Man, you're flying WAY too low!
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
It seems that for an electrical device it might be easier use to electromagnetic energy without the need to convert chemical energy from biomass. I remember someone at the university talking about having a small robot just land near a power line and recharge its batteries using induction. Or I imagine in an urban environment there might be other powerful sources of EM energy. But obviously in a remote location, flies and apples would work better.
Any engineers who know more about this?
The fact that we can turn food and other organic material in electricty is what excites me, more then the robot itself.
Could we use this to process our junk, or a good chunk of it in to electricty.
A compost pile that can power power your house, if only just as a small supplement would be cool.
I, for one, welcome our new skynet overlords.
Find coupons in Greeley
I wonder how much food a car would have to eat to get 350hp, 390ft/lbs of torque. There are reasons gasoline is such a great energy source.
This is my sig.
This story, and the picture of the rail thin Asian man who is a tsunami victim I asw this morning in the paper reminded me of the lyrics from a RUSH song I heard back in the 80s, paraphrasing, "They feed the machines, not the people"
bio fule cells
p os .htm
http://www.automation.hut.fi/research/bio/sfc00
I would rather be ashes than dust!
Hey there were experiments using organics as microprocessors back in the late 70's early 80's (As I am sure there still are) MOLD on creamed coffee was one they actually tried. I dont remeber the magazine as I read many but it was from 1978-1983 in Byte, Popular Mechanics, Pop-Sci- Pop-Ele- or Radio Electronics, maybe someone else remembers
"Tiny Aircraft Feeds Itself With Dead Flies" does not exist yet. Read the article, it says they're **thinking** about it. So, it's not a "waste of beer", yet. Just talk.
When they have tiny flying robots eating camel shit ,can they can finally find Osama?
Dyslexics have more fnu.
There was a very interesting discussion on the Diane Rehm show about West Nile virus and mosquitoes. One interesting topic of discussion was the issue of mosquitoes in the environment. One argument is that mosquitoes have no ecological benefit and that the world will be better off without them. Sure birds may eat the larvae, but most if not all birds' diets can consist of other insect larvae and other adult insects.
I say we should concentrate on robots that feed on mosquitoes and its larvae. Not only will it be good for robots, but we'll reduce the burden of the diseases that mosquitoes carry such as malaria and West Nile.
Linux at home
Work: Corporate America in your cube :)
Retired from software... maybe. Sort of.
My guess is that the best practical way to do this is to have it land on already dead organic matter and "feed". Catching a fly in midair is tough. :)
(Image of John Cleese hanging upside down outside a 10th story window):
"I am sorry. I am very sorry. I am really, really sorry."
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
GTRacer
- zzz
Defending IP by destroying access to it? That makes sense, RIAA/MPAA. Go to the corner until you can play nice!
Could this be the precursor to the Mr Fusion seen in Back to the Future ?
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
michael crichton? try philip k dick.
"when the sun sets on the ghetto, all the broken stuff gets cold"
Toshiba makes notebook computers
Toshiba researches small fusion reactors
Conclusion: nuclear notebooks could {fill in your own fantasy here.}
Thrust II went supersonic on land
Thrust II was built in England
Soon the British will be driving around in supersonic cars.
Linux was first developed in Finland
The Finns are famous for saunas
The next generation of Linux will require a periodic sauna in order to function with peak efficiency
I've lost interest in this now.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Nah, I think it's ePoop. The name iPoop would be reserved for robots connected to the Internet.
The Spoon
Updated 6/28/2011
I always found it strange that Doc Brown pronounced it the same way that Jay-Z would.
You know where you are? You're in the $PATH, baby. You're gonna get executed!
This just means that they will find the enemy's latrines instead of the enemy. After that, it is just a waiting game.
Remember, You are unique...just like everyone else.
Just happened to see this in the sidebar: eMachineShop
"Can there be a Klein bottle that is an efficient and effective beer pitcher?"
After they equipped robots with machine guns and rocket launchers, now they teach the robots to feed themselves. What is next? Teach the robots to reproduce?
Don't the bugs evolve and start eating humans for fuel?
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
Just spread it on toast. Much better than unlimited energy.
Ok, so they are working on this in a micro scale, but when the hell are they going to make one the size of a gas tank that can power my car???
I've been reading autobiographies of astronauts and others involved in the US Space program recently. They all talk about the fuel cell developed and used during Gemini and later Apollo. I want to know why, 40 yrs. later, these things are not yet practical? Was there just not enough motivation to make one work in that 40 yrs or was it because until now, gas was relatively cheap and no one cared about the smelly smoke coming from cars?
I say force a greater percentage of cars to be hybrids as a start and get ready to roll out the fuel cells.
--Somewhere there is a village missing an idiot.
Well, here's one time I guess they hope they DON'T work the bugs out!
or
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, THE BUGS MAKE YOU WORK OUT.
or
ALL YOUR BUGS BELONG TO US.
or...
Boo Hiss... I know I know.
Yo Grark
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
man did you mess that up, should have read like this:
When Governor Schwarzenegger was asked for comment he said with a grin "I'm on vacation, but... I'll be back".
see, it's all about the delivery! Delivery!! ... and timing, that's important too.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
Since they eat and fly, does this now mean I'll have to worry about tiny aircraft crap on my car instead of pigeons?
As long as there are dead flies hovering in the air at conviently spaced intervals.
I can see it now, the robot spends all it's energy every day hunting flies to sustain itself and can't ever find time to surveil the battlefield.
On the other hand, as a backpacker, I'd love to have a couple of these flying around me during black fly season. They don't have to fight, just fly around my head and catch flies. They can sit fat dumb and happy all night if they want, as long as they keep the flies off me during the day.
Think how this would help researchers in the field as well. They'd allow an archeologist to actually concentrate on his work instead of swat flies. Allow field work in the yukon without bio suits.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
I few years ago I was reading the skymall catalogue on a cross-country flight when I came accross a similar product. Somebody had invented a little wheeled robot to get rid of slugs in your back yard. It somehow sniffed out the slugs, picked them up with a robotic arm, and dumped them in a canister on its back. It then fermented the slugs into alcohol, which it used to generate electricity to power itself. Sure this new tech doesn't rely on an alcohol intermediary to turn bio into electricity, but that also means you don't get to drink the excess slug rum.
Soylent Green???
-Cnik
-Deuce
Venus Flying Trap?
I'm from the SPCAF, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Apples and Flies, are you *sure* the flies are dead first? Are you obsolutely positive that they died of *natural causes*?
Now off to talk to that Jobs guy. I've heard he's been abusing Apples.
FLR
It can eat flies, but can it catch them? With chopsticks?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Your sense of humor called.
It said it would be back, too. But not anytime soon.
Not only can it be done, many landfills are doing this already. Methane is a common by-product of landfills, and it is a unwanted greenhouse gas. They collect this in underground pipes, and then burn it. Commonly they burn it in a generator to generate some extra income
There are downsides though. The amount you get make doesn't really pay for the maintenance on the generators. If it wasn't for environmental concerns over methane they wouldn't do it at all. There just isn't that much to collect.
Much easier to use the garbage to power an incinerator, but incinerators are sensitive to the what you feed in. Landfills hold things you shouldn't toss like batteries without too many problems, while the tends to put the chemicals into the air. (modern landfills are lined so that the contamination doesn't escape - at least in theory)
It'll only be useful during the summer in England. A plane that can only fly 3 days a year isn't much of an invention
Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff that matters only to them
So we can power robots with dead flies and apples?
:-)
This reminds me of "The Matrix." Eventually the robots will realize that digesting a human can provide far more power than hundreds of flies!!!
There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who do not.
When the robot in question is so simple and well constrainted in its design that there is no conceivable way for it to harm humans.
As in, say, a little robot bird that flys around an orchard, gathering all of the fruit flies it finds.
I thought of that story also when I saw the headline to this article.
My strategy for using the spent grain is to bake a coarse whole-grain bread with it. I usually make a new batch at the same time as I'm re-racking an old batch, so I use the spent yeast from the first batch as well (although I usually need to add some bread yeast as well to get enough activity.)
Rye breads are particularly good this way since the caraway seeds offset some of the bitterness of the spent grain. I also like to substitute some of the partially fermented beer from the first racking for water in the bread recipe, which gives some additional flavor and nice sweetness from the unfermented malt.
nuke the moon
Welcome the new robotic flying insect eating overlords!
They need to make it eat misquitos and just fly around, maybe do something else useful like act as a wifi link in a larger network and reduce the pest population at the same time.
Actually, Mr. Fusion didn't show up until Back To The Future II.
Mr. Fusion appeared both at the end of the original (Part I) and at the beginning of Part II.
Actually, I believe he said he'd be Bach. (And you can be Beethoven!)
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
But what happens when the world runs out of flies?
Duh!
This article shows a prototype. It looks like the project is much further along than this theoretical flying fly-eater.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
It'd be much more fun if there were little laser cannons mounted on them.
I wonder why this is.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
That's the truth, huge build up and then an even larger let down :/
You are absolutely correct that we need to consider every angle before doing something to nature. I mourn the loss of the Native American societies who lived not to domineer over nature but to be wise stewards within it.
My problem is with statements like "...consequenses would certainly be local....". How do we know that?
We know that because we already have machines that slaughter the bloodsuckers en masse. I mentioned them above. They mimic the breath of a mammal to lure mosquitos. They cut down the *local* mosquito population.
I have yet to hear of any catastrophic environmental consequences. I'm all for conservation/restoration, but the mosquito population where it's thick enough to be annoying could easily stand to be lessened and still be enough to feed birds/pollinate flowers/whatever. Realize that there can be MILLIONS of these little bastards in a single area. The out-of-control skeeter numbers are, I presume, due to some other human-caused problem. Like I said before, I think we've already wiped out any "environment" that could need protecting. In fact, I'd wager there are many of situations where actively controlling the mosquito population would be the *responsible* thing to do.
Nevertheless, as irritating as I find mosquitos, and as much as I would welcome a world without little winged vampires, the best course of action is for people to just grin and bear it--or wear some OFF. They're just mosquitos. But if/when they become a health hazard (if West Nile gets out of control, for example), I choose humans over bugs.
I hate crap like this. It's all about making money. I've seen this before and the formula goes something like this:
1. Create hungry self-reproducing flying insect robots.
2. Release robots into wild.
3. Make ransome demand to world governments for one million dollars.
4. Profit!
4b. Apocalypse!
just a few comments that came a couple hours after reading mostly a comment on military largescale systems. only time will tell. well either time or a cadre of dod funded researchers and engineers. it's still quite smallscale however considering the US DOD especiallies new robotic /unmanned units.. all they need is fuel sustainability and you have a continously (except repairs etc..) mobile unit...
just add a a variety of choice ai systems.. whala. a new techno monster drone which could be programable for a number of tasks..
and yes they have programmed hunterseaker flying drones befor so I have heard.
its gets sicker when you consider their stealth systems.. including chameleon system..
but it seems that the microbial fuel cell is being geared towards small scale recon and sensor units.
the other though although I'm not a bibleprophecy person is could the future flying locusts be the black flying things that plauge the faithful.. or in modern times those that do not display their VISA?
you know the story.
True... the rest of the novel was great. It was like he wrote it and couldn't figure out how to end it so he just tacked on an ending.
Wouldnt they be iRobots?
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.
I believe another author also wrote about these, a book called "Mechasm" by John T. Sladek (now published under the title "The Reporductive System"
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.
I've played around in the past with making a lawn mower that could run off grass clippings digested in a similar way to this. I still think it'd be an awesome product if a company ever brought it to market.
I never thought to give my lawnmower much of a brain - just following an automated route and schedule for mowing - but I suppose it'd be possible. Why have bee sized overlords when you can have a tractor with whirling razor sharp steel blades as your overlord. Bwahahahaha!
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.