Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies

[King Nothing]

Skynet meets the Matrix? Pretty messed up stuff.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,...est=latestnews

It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie.

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

Robotic Technology Inc.'s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot — that's right, "EATR" — "can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable," reads the company's Web site.

That "biomass" and "other organically-based energy sources" wouldn't necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they'd be plentiful in a war zone.

EATR will be powered by the Waste Heat Engine developed by Cyclone Power Technology of Pompano Beach, Fla., which uses an "external combustion chamber" burning up fuel to heat up water in a closed loop, generating electricity.

The advantages to the military are that the robot would be extremely flexible in fuel sources and could roam on its own for months, even years, without having to be refueled or serviced.

Upon the EATR platform, the Pentagon could build all sorts of things — a transport, an ambulance, a communications center, even a mobile gunship.

In press materials, Robotic Technology presents EATR as an essentially benign artificial creature that fills its belly through "foraging," despite the obvious military purpose.

[Velociraptor82]

The is just wrong. Can this machine determin the difference between a living creature and a dead one???

[Road_Warrior]

In press materials, Robotic Technology presents EATR as an essentially benign artificial creature that fills its belly through "foraging," despite the obvious military purpose.

Yeah right, robotic apocalypse here we come.

Just imagine what Iraq War III will be like in 50 years using these things...ugh.

[06bfxr8]

aslong as their the enemy who cares

[ZA-289]

Terminator?

[onfire]

The hardest part when reading this, pretending you're not at all excited. : )

[GT69]

No such thing as friendly fire or collateral damage anymore :

[LeadFoot81]

Woah woah woah; could the EATR technology power my XR8?

Killer XR8 robot powered by its enemies corpses, freakin sweet!

As long as all future killing machines are powered by Vista and not Mac O/S well all be safe, when the Vista Terminators invariably lock up we can just pull their batteries out!

[Teflon Turbo]

cant they make it look less like a tonka truck and more robotish

[GK]

Amazing and scary what's been going on in labs around the world.

A war robot that will kill you and then eat you! LOL!

GK

[Deech]

Originally Posted by LeadFoot81

Woah woah woah; could the EATR technology power my XR8?

Killer XR8 robot powered by its enemies corpses, freakin sweet!

Running a V8 on stick-thin ricers? As if!
You'd get about half a km per rat's tail, and it'd take 3 whole bumbags just to get to the shops and back. The only plus side is that Macca's carparks would provide an easy source of fuel.

[schnoods]

so a military robot (presumably it kills people) will feed off dead bodies to stay alive, so when it gets the low battery reading, it will shoot to stay alive?


dont like it one bit, civilians and friendly fire maybe in the firing line. i'd rather they made larger missiles that can be guided around the world and hit a target dead on then this sci-fi weirded classic.

[Windsor220]

Terminator is coming. Inevitable.

[distortion]

i wouldnt worry about this... im more worried about the insect sized robots and nano-bots that are currently being developed! that and the next gen predator unmanned arial bombers...

[Lukeyson]

i was watching some show the other day called thats impossible, and it was talking about cyborgs and stuff with AI. etc

its crazy the rate technology is moving, it will be our undoing

[SB076]

Sheez why dont they do something useful and cure cancer - I dont think the world needs military robot that feeds off flesh

[MITCHAY]

I think it's messed up that anyone would even think up a thing such as this :

[gocruzin]

Where's my flying car why cant they make one of those, or hover boards like Back to the Future. Why does it always have to be killer robots?

[xr8chick]

Zombie robot?

[Peuty]

Originally Posted by SB076

I dont think the world needs military robot that feeds off flesh

I do. Let it do a few laps of Brisbane. Would solve our traffic woes and bring the price of houses down.

[XW_GS]

what a load of frog poo, what if an Afgani robot was eating up our dead diggers....

They should use all that "talent" for good not this crap


they shouldnt even allow ex-gamer-nerds to become military engineers!!!

[XR8GRL]

Doesn't surprise me, though it's a scary thought.

[onfire]

would get awfully real when I dare say the US rolls out these babies first. People may think twice before mouthing off in regards to the US policies.

[metalmania]

What makes you think the US will only have these? One of them will sell the secrets anyway, the mighty dollar rules.

[onfire]

If anyone else gets this technology first, the US will lead the UN in trying to ban whoever gets it from using or further developing said technology. Of course it will be OK for the US to develop and test the zombie robots.

[Keepleft]

Originally Posted by Velociraptor82

The is just wrong. Can this machine determin the difference between a living creature and a dead one???

I don't know, but looking at NSW ALP's lineup, it'd be hard pressed to tell the difference I reckon.

Wonder the if technology can apply to cars? Broom broom - hits a cyclist, gobbles that up, a pedestrian next, phone service seller next - all on one trip!

No offence. . .

[Road_Warrior]

What's to stop this thing from going "hey, I'm hungry. Here's a neat idea - BLAM! BLAM! You're dead and now my dinner!"

[Peuty]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

What's to stop this thing from going "hey, I'm hungry. Here's a neat idea - BLAM! BLAM! You're dead and now my dinner!"

Did Isaac Asimov teach you anything? :

[TURBOTAXI]

I have checked snopes - this does not seem to be urban myth...... Awesome!!!!