A ROBOT that will generate its own power by eating flies is being developed by British scientists.
The idea is to produce electricity by catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells that will break down sugar in the insects’ skeletons and release electrons that will drive an electric current. —Robot eats flies to make power (news.com.au/The Daily Telegraph)
At the moment, this tremendous technological breakthrough requires the services of human attendants, who catch the flies and gently feed them to the robot.
I’m sure there is some deep, philosophical observation worth making here…
Whoops, gotta go… my robot is hungry.
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I’m not a robotics expert, but my guess is that such a device would consume a lot of energy. They’re probably still testing the “digesting flies” part of the technology.
Why not make some end effector, which can be mounted on the robot, to catch flies?
i want to know how i can make power robots???
Hah! You are probably right! :c)
Heh… maybe the inventor got tired of women demanding that he squish bugs all the time! (Now I’m going to duck for cover behind my workbench.)
Um, that’s just gross! What kind of person thought up that idea??
I can just imagine it: Dude sitting at kitchen table, drinking some Foster’s, sees his cat catch a fly and eat and thinks “Hey! I’m going to make a robot that eats flies! Sweet!”
(& I’m sorry to be all gender-biased, but honestly? It -had- to be a man thinking up that shit!)
My wife says, “No, because Renfield could catch his own flies.”
I think they can easily make a robotic chef in the dining hall out of this. ;-)
This is really amazing. A virtual venus fly trap. What’ll they think of next? Thanks for posting this bizarre entry.
Do they call the robot Renfield?