WTF Friday: Robot Watches Spider Catch Flies, Then Feeds On Them
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 26 of June , 2009 at 4:29 am
This is just plain weird, folks… It’s a wall mounted robot with an arm, a camera, and a bioreactor. See all those little pegs? They’re designed to encourage spiders to build their webs there. When a fly gets stuck in the web, a camera (the thing on the right) records what happens for you to, uh, watch later or something. After the fly hasn’t moved for 10 minutes, a robot arm (on the left) plucks the fly out of the web and deposits it into a microbial fuel cell, where it provides power for the robot. Yes, the robot eats flies. It’s kind like EATR, only more gross.
And the poor spider starves, I guess.
This bizarre pest control prototype is brought to you by Auger-Loizeau, and we have more of their pest-powered furniture over on OhGizmo.
[ Auger-Loizeau ] VIA [ New Scientist ]
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Comment by Zool
Made Friday, 26 of June , 2009 at 9:18 am
Just one problem. (Well other than the designer needs to be committed to an asylum!), the main design flaw is spiders will get bored with having to compete for their food, especially after having put in all the hard work in catching lunch. (As they already have to compete with others of their own kind stealing their food I’m sure they are well versed is judging when to give up in competitive food battles). Plus it would be kind of scary for a spider to have a (relatively huge) arm moving nearby. If I was a spider, I would setup home on that nice looking camera support post. That looks like prime spider real estate. :)