Self-sustaining killer robot creates a stink - A carnivorous robot that eats flies??!!!

[ScoobMaster]

It may eat flies and stink to high heaven, but if this robot works, it will be an important step towards making robots fully autonomous.

To survive without human help, a robot needs to be able to generate its own energy. So Chris Melhuish and his team of robotics experts at the University of the West of England in Bristol are developing a robot that catches flies and digests them in a special reactor cell that generates electricity.

Link to full article

 

[Bulk Beef]

So what is the downside? The robot will most likely have to attract the hapless flies by using a stinking lure concocted from human excrement.

I think I'll wait for the second generation before buying.

 

[gigapet]

Originally posted by: sward666

So what is the downside? The robot will most likely have to attract the hapless flies by using a stinking lure concocted from human excrement.

I think I'll wait for the second generation before buying.

who's poo would they use? Can I sell them some of mine?

 

[shiner]

This has bad Sci Fi Channel movie written all over it......

NEXT ON SCI FI......ATTACK OF THE EXCREMENT BOTS......staring Richard Grieco, Dan Haggerty, Jenny McCarthy, and Malcolm McDowell as the mad scientist.

 

[GasX]

Excuse me, I am off to eBay top search for some celebrity scat to fuel my battle bot...

 

[MacBaine]

This thread stinks like a repost

 

[SagaLore]

Great. Next thing you know, the robots are plugging us into a huge mainframe and using our charge and heat as energy.

 

[Eli]

All jokes aside, that's fscking awesome!

I don't understand why they have to use something stinky to attract the flies, though. We've known about and had fly attractants for the last 150 years. I assume they're pheromones.

Those fly strips work very well. Someone needs to give them a heads up.. lol

Although, I imagine that using the sewage slurry as an attractant instead of a 3rd mechanism would probably be desirable, and it's going to stink anyway.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: SagaLore
Great. Next thing you know, the robots are plugging us into a huge mainframe and using our charge and heat as energy.

It's all bullshit. There's something called the law of conservation of energy.

 

[Howard]

... or whatever the hell it's called.