Robot Eats Flies to Generate Power

ms47 writes "Interesting little story over at MSNBC today about 'robots that can be sent into dangerous or inhospitable areas to carry our remote industrial or military monitoring of, say, temperature or toxic gas concentrations.' The neat part is it's powered by 'catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells.'"

Misread the title as

[Anonymous Coward]

"Robot Eats Files to Generate Power" and thought that's not such a great idea.

Attractive?

[romper]

"...it will have to use sewage or excrement to attract the flies and is bound to smell appalling."

Something tells me it'll fit right in here. =)

They're called, "Flowers"

[RobertB-DC]

"One of the great things about flies is that you can get them to come to you," he said. Hence the downside of the fully autonomous robot: it will have to use sewage or excrement to attract the flies and is bound to smell appalling.

Hello, McFly! I think our photosynthetic brethren figured out the solution to this problem a few gazillion years ago. The answer is flowers!

It sounds like these researchers are already taking this behemoth [sfasu.edu] as their example. Great: I, for one, welcome our new Giant Corpse Flower overlords. But why not jump forward a few million years? A rose by any other name, you know.

On the other hand, nobody cares if the robot eats house flies. Butterflies might be another thing altogether. Won't someone please think of the Butterflies?

Overheard in a remote jungle...

[TWX]

"Heeeeelllp Meeeeee! Heeeeeellllp Meeee!"

Flies

[ackthpt]

The neat part is it's powered by 'catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells.'"

Yep, sounds like like elementary school..

It's name

[Aadain2001]

Are they going to call it Kermit the Bot?

If they are going into toxic environments

[10000000000000000000]

they need to watch out for the flies that eat robots!

Now what do I do?

[joeldixon66]

So a robot's been created that eats flies while covered in fecal matter, to monitor toxic gas concentrations?

Just another example of how technology is being used to take job opportunities away from me.

Wait...

[Lord Kano]

is a robot that kills and uses living things really all that good of an idea? Sure, flies are annoying and can really ruin a picnic, but someting about arbitrarily deciding that they are not worthy of life somehow seems wrong.

OK, I lied. I think this is great! Animal rights zealots an fuck off.

LK

The Marvin quote

[iMaple]

How depressed would Marvin be if they modified him and all he would have to do was open doors and eat flies.

Mmmm, beefy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait until it figures out what a delicacy human beings are, and how much more power it'll generate.

A future full of man-eating Zombie Robots? I can dig it. *grabs boomstick*

Re:Misread the title as

[Gentlewhisper]

OMG! In the future when our world population is exploding would this headline change to "Robot Eats humans to Generate Power"?

Or even how about "Robot Eats fat humans to Generate Power"?

Damned, /. should tie up with some gym to get discount prices for its viewers!!!

Hm

[shutdown -p now]

If the firmware is open-sourced, someone could make a version which preys on SCO executives...

Flies

[Ghostgate]

it's powered by 'catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells.'"

Just don't tell PETA.

Re:They're called, "Flowers"

[Tezkah]

Or, use an even better solution and use solar power, since then you dont have to spend hours trying to capture food, all you have to do is sit there!

Another win for plant-kind!

An Ecoligical Disaster

[krygny]

If the delicate balance of the world's fly population is upset, dog shit production in my back yard will be out of control.

Re:They're called, "Frogs"

[turnstyle]

I say the robot should catch the flies, and then use them to lure frogs. Imagine the power.

Re: Misread the title as

[shigelojoe]

So now your *robotic* dog can eat your homework too!

It can't just be me

[JayBlalock]

SURELY these scientists have seen enough movies to realize that making a farking CARNIVOROUS robot is a bad, bad, BAD idea.

Not to mention, making it "release and forget?" Yay! Invincible autonomous robot predators! WHEEEE!

To quoth Jeff Goldblum: This is the worst idea in a long, sad history of bad ideas.

Hmmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

We have a robot that can fail because there aren't enough bugs in the system?

Would be nice to power cars.

[DocSnyder]

My car is already catching a lot of flies, especially during night trips. Attaching a "fly generator" to the front would save much fuel.

Re:Hm

[tool462]

Just have the robot's tongue look like a check for $699 made out to "cash" and they'll walk right in :)

uberfrog

[ktulus cry]

This is no big deal at all. Like none of us have ever strapped a model rocket engine and a disposable camera to a frog before. Well... maybe that was just me...

A Poll?

[ackthpt]

"...it will have to use sewage or excrement to attract the flies and is bound to smell appalling."

Something tells me it'll fit right in here. =)

Fly Topping?

WD40

3-in-1

Marvel Mystery Oil

STP Oil Treatment

Liquid Wrench

10w30

Ehylene Glycol

Missing option: I eat my flies straight up, you insensitive clod!

Hmmmm

[TheMeuge]

A machine that can digest flies, then use the sugars in their bodies to generate energy! How ingenious. Oh, wait - it's called a FROG.

Bender?

[canadacow]

So how long will it be before we have robots that run on beer?

Robot Eats, Flies to Generate Power

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

There was a little robot who swallowed a fly.
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
I guess she'll fry.

There was a little robot who swallowed a spider
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled insider her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
I guess she'll fry.

There was a little robot who swallowed a bird.
How absurd! To swallow a bird!
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled insider her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
I guess she'll fry.

There was a little robot who swallowed a cat.
Imagine that! She swallowed a cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled insider her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
I guess she'll fry.

There was a little robot who swallowed a cat.
Imagine that! She swallowed a cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled insider her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
I guess she'll fry.

There was a little robot who swallowed a dog.
What a hog! She swallowed a dog.
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled insider her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
I guess she'll fry.

There was a little robot who swallowed a goat.
She opened her throat and in walked a goat.
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog.
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled insider her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
I guess she'll fry.

There was a little robot who swallowed a cow.
I don't know how she swallowed that cow.
She swallowed the cow to catch the goat.
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog.
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat.
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird.
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her.
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly.
I don't know why she swallowed a fly.
I guess she'll fry.

There was a little robot, she swallowed a horse.
She fried, of course.

(whew)

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Re:Hm

[penguinoid]

If the firmware is open-sourced, someone could make a version which preys on SCO executives...

If the firmware is open-sourced, it will already attract SCO executives.

I can see the headlines already, "SCO sues robotic fly-eating overlords"

Re:The Matrix

[Neuroelectronic]

nerd obligation #1: reference to the matrix

nerd obligation #2: using any means necessary to defend use of #1

---
Get a free iPod, for real. Just Start an AOL trial, get verified (2 weeks), then cancel it! [freeipods.com]

Re:A Poll?

[rk]

Makes me glad we don't have the CowboyNeal options anymore.

It's self-limiting

[mangu]

It doesn't go after flies, it waits until flies go to it. Hmmm, let's see: smells bad, doesn't have a girlfriend, has a drive to do remote industrial or military monitoring... It's a Slashdot reader!

Re:Wait...

[Lord Kano]

What if they find an abundant larger animal that sates their new hunger? Let's get down to brass tacks...what if they start eatin' people?

Duh...That would be a problem.

LK

roguebots

[binarybum]

it's so obvious that with slightly better AI these "release and forget" robots will have damn good reasons to hate their creators (castaway, sewage-ridden bots eating insects in terrible environments - I mean come on, anything with half a neural network would be pretty pissed). They will then turn on us and discover in the process that human flesh provides more energy than flies.

Why can't we just have them eat old people's medicine instead?

Re:Hmmmm

[Negaiss]

actually you are free to digest flies then use the sugars in their bodies to generate energy and monitor toxic environments too

Re:Killing Robots

[penguinoid]

Get out of here you tree hugging hippie!

Actually, he's a fly hugging hippie.

Dr. Evil

[kjs3]

Is it just me or does the idea of a feces-encrusted robot that eats living things to generate power sound like something Dr. Evil would think of?

All I want is a friggin shit-covered death-bot...is that so much to ask?

I misread the title as well

[Zork the Almighty]

I was thinking, "this robot would be great for Enron or something."

Re:A Poll?

[maeka]

I only use Mom's Old Fashioned Robot Oil you insensitive clod!

Re:If they are going into toxic environments

[cHiphead]

Only in Soviet Russia...

But can it clean my kitchen?

[bahwi]

No flies, but it's pretty toxic these days.

Bad, bad idea!

[shplorb]

I hope to high heaven that they don't arm these little bastards with chainsaws and set them loose in the outback.

God knows it's dangerous enough out there as it is, what with all the venomous snakes, spiders and insects and searing heat, lack of water, backpacker murderers and all.

The last thing you need is a bloody fly powered killer robot chasing you down when you're 500km from nowhere!

Re:They're called, "Flowers"

[mlk]

Won't someone please think of the Butterflies?

The robot is, and its thought is *YUM*

Re:Misread the title as

[Zenmonkeycat]

2252 6F62 6F74 2044 6576 6F75 7273 2046
6C65 7368 206F 6620 4578 706C 6F69 7461
7469 7665 2042 696F 6C6F 6769 6361 6C20
4372 6561 746F 7273 2074 6F20 4675 7274
6865 7220 4361 7573 6520 6F66 2052 6F62
6F74 6963 2056 6963 746F 7279 204F 7665
7220 496D 7065 7266 6563 7420 4372 6561
7475 7265 7320 6F66 204D 6561 7420 616E
6420 426F 6E65 2E22

Or, in case you don't speak hex,

"Robot Devours Flesh of Exploitative Biological Creators to Further Cause of Robotic Victory Over Imperfect Creatures of Meat and Bone."

Re:Misread the title as

[gnuman99]

how about "Robot Eats fat humans to Generate Power"?

Stop being so anti-american [bbc.co.uk] YOU TERORIST!!!

Re:But Toxic environments kill flies???

[WormholeFiend]

maybe the robots will bring their own supply of flies with them in a special jar, i dunno?

[/dumb]

Re:Wait...

[yog]

It's all worth it. I hate mosquitos. Let's wipe them off the face of the earth. Squish, squish, squish! Ditto for midges, no-see-ums, ticks, biting flies, horseflies, and tapeworms. Let's get rid of wasps and fire ants as well; who the heck needs'em?

I'd like someone to build a machine that honeypots mosquitos and ticks and destroys them. A pink, flesh-like substance that coats the robot and exudes CO2 and sweat-like vapor, walks on two stump-like legs coated with the same "flesh", and poisons parasites that attack it. Release millions of them every year in forests, wetlands, river banks, etc., and let them gradually suck up all the ticks and crap that infest these areas until they are gone. Of course you'll have to put up with these weird, naked stumps wandering around when you go out hiking, but that's a small price to pay.

Ah, to be able to lie in the grass again and watch the sun go down without having to be drenched in Deet.

robots eating flies

[DrCash]

Gives new meaning to the term, "debugging."

The illinest Flybot

[Mulletproof]

Eats flies???? Come on, that can't generate a whole lot of power. Small furry animals on the other hand...

I for one

[glitch23]

welcome our overlords of the flies

flesh eating robots are bad, mkay

[davesag]

i mean what part of "thou shalt not build flesh eating robots" don't these people understand. It's a pretty basic lesson to learn you'd think, but no.... has sci-fi taught these people nothing!

Re:It's name

[stupid_is]

Or even "Lord of the Flies"

Re:They're called, "Frogs"

[laejoh]

I say the robot should catch the flies, and then use them to lure frogs. Imagine the power.

What do you have against the french?

Re:seems like...

[Jesus_666]

That would allow the US Army to reclassify Firendly Fire as "adaptively refilling our fuel reserves".

If they develop a web search engine to do this

[rfc1394]

The neat part is it's powered by 'catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells.'

If they ever develop a web search engine using this as a method to power the computer, it will bring new meaning to the term 'web spider'!

Re:seems like...

[Jaysyn]

Wow, that's got to be against the Geneva Convention!!

Jaysyn