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Environmentally conscious military robot to feed on dead bodies

post #1 of 5
7/16/09 at 1:22am
Thread Starter 
And it's appropriately called EATR! I want to see a WALL-E sequel with this guy in it.

"Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies"
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...est=latestnews
(yeah ... I know the article is stretching facts a bit, but still ...)
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post #2 of 5
7/16/09 at 3:44am
I can see how this happened. Someone was playing Warcraft 3 one night and had an epiphany. "Hey, this Undead Meat Wagon is cool! We need to make one in real life!" Of course raising the fallen to fight for you as zombies is not yet feasible but I bet there's an EATR Mk.II in planning for just this purpose.
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post #3 of 5
7/18/09 at 1:24am
Awww, apparently it doesn't really feast on the flesh of the dead.
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post #4 of 5
7/20/09 at 4:59pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, of course the article was trying to denationalize things so this is not unexpected. The funny thing is that the company had to deliver this press release;



"Company Denies its Robots Feed on the Dead"
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009...d-on-the-dead/

Quote:
POMPANO BEACH, Fla.– In response to rumors circulating the internet on sites such as FoxNews.com, FastCompany.com and CNET News about a “flesh eating” robot project, Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. (Pink Sheets:CYPW) and Robotic Technology Inc. (RTI) would like to set the record straight: This robot is strictly vegetarian.

On July 7, Cyclone announced that it had completed the first stage of development for a beta biomass engine system used to power RTI’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR™), a Phase II SBIR project sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Defense Sciences Office. RTI’s EATR is an autonomous robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling.

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 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.” (emphasis in the original)
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post #5 of 5
7/20/09 at 5:01pm
Yeah, it's not eating dead bodies...now. But one day, it will accidentally roll over a corpse and get a taste for meat and that, my friends, will be a very scary day.
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