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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.
1.21 Gigawatts!?
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?
A. the apples i am attempting to eat at my picnic.
B. the flies at my picnic.
C. violation of airspace?
There's a dead tiny-fly-eating-aircraft in my soup!
What a waste of beer. Is free unlimited clean energy really worth the price??
> Couldn't a spybot just land on a powerline and get power from induction?
Alas, Hume demonstrated induction isn't reliable.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
What a waste of beer.
No, it's ok. They use American beer.
I'll do it for cheesy poofs.
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
No, it's ok. They use American beer.
So it runs on water, then? Cool!
I want to drag this out as long as possible. Bring me my protractor.
American beer is similar to having sex in a canoe. It's fucking close to water.
Sorry, my karma just ran over your dogma.
yeah, because if it eats you, you can't cast Raise Dead on the body