Researcher at the University of the West of England in Bristol have designed a new robot which creates energy the same way we do, by digesting food.
More amazingly is that this food, in the form of bluebottle flies, is unrefined and plans are already under way to allow it to attract its food to
itself. Much like venus flytrap future versions of this robot will lure fles into tself in order to process them into energy.
www.newscientist.com
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.
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So is this the first step in the transition of robots to biological machines? If so will advances in AI allow humans to create a new class of natural
predtor, and if so what are the limits? A robot that can run down deer and use them for food in the way that a wolfpack can? Will biological behavior
models be incorporated? As the line between machine and life blurs where do we draw the line?
[edit on 9-10-2004 by Valhall]
