Robot Eats Flies to Generate Power 410
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.'"
The Matrix (Score:4, Interesting)
No need to smell like shit... (Score:5, Interesting)
-Pinkoir
Is this at all useful (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course the original is a really cool toy if you need an automated fly swatter.
Let us not forget phase I: (Score:3, Interesting)
See Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory [uwe.ac.uk] for more information.
Slugbot, Ecobot... oddly enough I don't see a link to Ecobot II on there.
Flies have been used before (Score:5, Interesting)
Doesn't sound all that practical... (Score:3, Interesting)
If humans and other mammals do not want to or cannot live/work in these environments, why would insects find a locally dangerous or inhospitable habitat inviting? I don't of many common flies that can withstand high temperatures or toxic gas concentrations and be in a local environment in a large enough population to sustain the energy needs of a robot.
What scientists should be doing is finding ways that allow mammals to live/work in these toxic environments. For example, parasitic worms, the adult intestinal cestode, Hymenolepis diminuta, lives in the intestines of its host; it does not have a digestive system or any means of ingesting food from the host. It acquires its nutrients simply by absorbtion through the cellular membranes. More interestingly, these parasitic helminths have mitochondria that utilizes fumurate as the final electron pair acceptor with concommitant generation of succinate as the end product of its energy metabolism. Translation: This worm's mitochondria operate ANAEROBICALLY whereas the mitochondria in humans and other mammals operate aerobically (oxygen is the final electron pair acceptor with carbon dioxide being the end product of our energy metabolism). Scientists could start genetically modifying mammalian mitochondria to operate in both environments (this already happens naturally in clams and other aquatic muscles). This could allow human heart muscle to survive and function in low oxygen tension environments; hence, no or fewer heart attacks. Pfizer http://www.pfizer.com/ [pfizer.com] is agressively pursuing cardiac and lipid metabolism research for the treatment of artereosclerosis. Combining Lipitor and a research compound, torceptrapib, will likely prevent plaques and cholesterol from ever clogging up arterial pathways, so my argument is almost impractical, but interesting.
Yes, I'm a chemistry geek! Did you see my Slashdot user ID?
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It can't just be me (Score:5, Interesting)
How about a robot that eats fish [216.239.41.104]? Now we just need to tweek a few settings, and it might be able to catch even bigger "fish"
human powered (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Asimov, and Content... (Score:5, Interesting)
More interesting is how Asimov tests his three laws in this story. The George robots aren't concerned with physical appearances (hence robo-birds). Therefore they decide humans are really evaluated based on their minds and character. Since they worked out a way to save the US Robotics company and ensure a nice future partnership between humans and robots, they decide they are smarter than normal humans, and thus in fact actually are humans and superior ones at that. Oops.
Re:It's name (Score:2, Interesting)
But Toxic environments kill flies??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Either they were really desperate for a grant application, or there's something else going on here, like a very specialized military application (e.g. can't use a solar power collector because they're putting it somewhere dark or because that would be too visible to enemy soldiers.)
Re:Doesn't sound all that practical... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:They're called, "Flowers" (Score:2, Interesting)
Aren't flies also attracted to watermelon? I dunno, just the first thing that came to my mind...
Mmmm.... watermelon.
Re:I'm not so sure. (Score:5, Interesting)
Because you're outgassing a suculent (to a mosquito) odor from your skin. It isn't just CO2, but compounds like octenol. Some genera are more strongly attracted to some compounds than others. Aedes and Ochlerotatus mosquitoes are particularly attracted to CO2, or so some of my entomological geek friends say.
Once they get close, mosquitoes are phototropic as well. Since they can see in the ifrared range, you're also like a walking lightbulb.
The way people seem to attract mosquitoes probably depends on two things: their skin sensitivity (sensitive people notice more) and their metabolic rate (which affects how smelly and bright they appear to the mosquito).
Trust me, I know too much about this stuff.
Re:They're called, "Flowers" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Killing Robots (Score:3, Interesting)
Common Sense... (Score:2, Interesting)
How are they planning to send this robot into toxic environments, when the thing they're using as fuel won't exist in those environments?
*puzzled look*