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Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies...

Posted 4 months ago


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532492,00.html A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

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)

  1. dansemcabre says

    See Seee The evil empire begins! I told ya!

    Permalink posted 07/16/2009
  2. RGM says

    We are going to be taken over by man eating Tonka trucks...

    Permalink posted 07/16/2009
  3. capndad says

    LOL. And I threw all of mine out.

    Permalink posted 07/16/2009
  4. RGM says

    And for good reason lol!

    Permalink posted 07/16/2009
  5. dansemcabre says

    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!

    Permalink posted 07/17/2009
  6. earthman says

    thats just what we need right now

    Permalink posted 07/17/2009
  7. RGM says

    dans,,,: 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ntr-pw_6C0

    earthman:

    Next we'll get this...

    Permalink posted 07/17/2009
  8. dansemcabre says

    Yep thats the clip I was thinking about!

    Permalink posted 07/17/2009

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