Robot that eats flies for power

British scientists are developing a robot that will generate its own power by eating flies Called EcoBot II.




The idea is to produce electricity by catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells that will break down sugar in the insects' skeletons and release electrons that will drive an electric current.

Chris Melhuish and his team, who are developing the robot, have to manually feed the flies to EcoBot II because they are still designing some type of pump to suck the insects into it.

"One of the great things about flies is that you can get them to come to you," he said.

A very interesting method to power a robot and a first that I know off. Very smart to use flys as the insect since they are indeed easy to catch, heck plants manage to catch them like the Venus fly trap.They say this robot will stink to high heaven since they use bacteria from sewage to break down the sugars.

I have to wonder what other applications this tech could be used for in the future. Imagine instead of a roach trap a little robot bug that tracks down roaches kills them and eats them for power.


www.newscientist.com...
www.msnbc.msn.com...
robots.engadget.com...


[edit on 12-12-2004 by ShadowXIX]

[edit on 12-12-2004 by ShadowXIX]

damn...

what about man eating robots

great find

I wonder if this could lead us to creating our own fossil fuels??

What a great idea for a short story, or a movie!

How would a machine attract humans?

Disguise itself as a phone box, and have a ringing phone inside?

Originally posted by Netchicken
What a great idea for a short story, or a movie!

How would a machine attract humans?

Disguise itself as a phone box, and have a ringing phone inside?

thanks for that thought netchecken,you just made my day

oh and nice find Shadow,i cant imagine even the greenies would be screaming save the flies lol

Netchicken a human eating phone booth I bet you it would catch more then a few humans. Being slowly digested in human feces by giant robot phone booth that would be a bad way to go though.

I didnt really think of any other organic fuel source besides bugs. Robots that could use any animal even humans would be pretty scary.

BirdsEyeView made a good point that perhaps this might be a way to create our own fossil fuel. Reminds my of the car in Back to the Future 2 when he had that engine from the future that ran on organic trash.

Something like that would have a two fold eco friendly punch. Non-polluting and recycling trash at the same time.

For the human eating robot, just make it an ATM. People are always going to those for money.

If they made one to track down roaches, I would buy it.

Lol.. fly eating robot.. Something I need to see up close. What happens when you run outta fly juice?? Batteries?

Originally posted by Useful 1diot
What happens when you run outta fly juice?? Batteries?

I would think the robot would run out of power, unless it could catch more flies without using any power then it could just wait for the next victim.

I dont think it needs alot of flies though

"EcoBot II travelled for five days on just eight fat flies - one in each MFC. "

Not bad at all but Ecobot II will not be setting any speed records with the amount of flies it eats.

''With a top speed of 10 centimetres per hour, EcoBot II's roving prowess is still modest to say the least. "Every 12 minutes it gets enough energy to take a step forwards two centimetres and send a transmission back''

I would imagine as the tech gets better or if it eat more flies it would move alot faster. It will be interesting to see where this technology goes in the next few years.

They also seem to have made another earlier bot somewhat like this the Slugbot.

"Slugbot was designed to hunt slugs on farms by using imaging systems to spot and grab the pests, and then deliver them to a digester that produces methane to power a fuel cell. "

Great find, ShadowXIX.

From: Self-sustaining killer robot creates a stink

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

If it were eating humans instead of flies it wouldn�t have to smell like shIt. And more meat = more power. These bots have an interesting future. Why not equip them with an organic brain as well...

How would a machine attract humans?

Disguise itself as a phone box, and have a ringing phone inside?

Man I needed a good laugh! That was great! By the way Net chicken, great avatar.
On a serious note, this is actually quite intriguing. A manmade device actually digesting a lifeform for power. A tad troubling if you really want to think about it, however very ingenious.

It would be more than a thousand times better if they made a mosquito eating machine.