Update: EATR Gets Fleshed Out, Doesn’t Feast On Soylent Green After All
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 17 of July , 2009 at 5:33 am
We posted about the EATR robot back in February, but it’s been making the rounds recently and a few new details have emerged. We joked a little about Soylent Green in our post, but a whole bunch of people (including, unsurprisingly, Fox News) fixated on the fact that EATR can ingest any biomass, including OMG DEAD BODIES.
Also unsurprisingly, EATR’s designers at Robotic Technology immediately clarified the situation by issuing this press release:
“RTI’s patent pending robotic system will be able to find, ingest and extract energy from biomass in the environment. Despite the far-reaching reports that this includes “human bodies,” the public can be assured that the engine Cyclone (Cyclone Power Technologies Inc.) has developed to power the EATR runs on fuel no scarier than twigs, grass clippings and wood chips — small, plant-based items for which RTI’s robotic technology is designed to forage. Desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Conventions, and is certainly not something sanctioned by DARPA, Cyclone or RTI.”
“We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” stated Harry Schoell, Cyclone’s CEO. “We are focused on demonstrating that our engines can create usable, green power from plentiful, renewable plant matter. The commercial applications alone for this earth-friendly energy solution are enormous.”
Robots eating dead bodies is against the Geneva Conventions, huh? Good to know! We’ve got some more specifics, too, including the fact that for every pound and a half of biomass that EATR ingests, it can go one mile, which means that EATR could drive nearly a hundred miles on one meal of me. Oops, right, it’s a vegetarian, never mind.
EATR will be programmed to seek out more appropriate sources of food, and should be able to keep itself going indefinitely in a suitable environment. As a modular self-sustaining platform it’s good for just about anything, from long duration surveillance to something a little more, you know, tactically significant.
[ Robotic Technology EATR ] VIA [ Fox News ]
Comments (2)
Category: Biorobotics, Concepts
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Comment by Ironman
Made Friday, 17 of July , 2009 at 1:41 pm
“We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population…”
ROFL
Comment by Zool
Made Friday, 17 of July , 2009 at 4:34 pm
Great so DARPA war robots can kill us but not eat us. I feel so much better. :)