Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies...
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It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie. Robotic Technology Inc.'s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot — that's right, "EATR" — "can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable," reads the company's Web site.

That "biomass" and "other organically-based energy sources" wouldn't necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they'd be plentiful in a war zone. EATR will be powered by the Waste Heat Engine developed by Cyclone Power Technology of Pompano Beach, Fla., which uses an "external combustion chamber" burning up fuel to heat up water in a closed loop, generating electricity.

The advantages to the military are that the robot would be extremely flexible in fuel sources and could roam on its own for months, even years, without having to be refueled or serviced. Upon the EATR platform, the Pentagon could build all sorts of things — a transport, an ambulance, a communications center, even a mobile gunship.

In press materials, Robotic Technology presents EATR as an essentially benign artificial creature that fills its belly through "foraging," despite the obvious military purpose.

"Yummy!"








Comments (8)
See Seee The evil empire begins! I told ya!
We are going to be taken over by man eating Tonka trucks...
LOL. And I threw all of mine out.
And for good reason lol!
still if it runs on microsoft we'll just wait till it gets an automatic update and freezes up. Then we'll take em out!
thats just what we need right now
dans,,,:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ntr-pw_6C0
earthman:
Next we'll get this...
Yep thats the clip I was thinking about!