New military robots 'could feed on corpses'



Wonderful: your most horrible military-death-cyborg-synergy dreams come true.

A Maryland company under contract with the Pentagon is developing a robot that can burn organic material and use collected debris as fuel -- including, but not limited to, things like sticks, grass, debris -- and dead bodies. Fox News reports:

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.
The article notes that the Pentagon could use the EATR as the foundation for any number of battlefield vehicles, be they ambulances, transports or actual weapons-oriented machines.

Robotic Technology, Inc. provides more palatable details about their project -- which they describe as simply a foraging robot. Cadavers aren't mentioned.

We originated the concept of the EATR in 2003 and the project was sponsored as a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project by an agency of the Department of Defense..

The purpose of the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR)™ (patent pending) project is to develop and demonstrate an autonomous robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling, which would otherwise preclude the ability of the robot to perform such missions. The system obtains its energy by foraging – engaging in biologically-inspired, organism-like, energy-harvesting behavior which is the equivalent of eating. It 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.
On the other hand, popular science blog Pharnygula, says Fox's report is only sensationalizing the story.

The military has plans for a new kind of drone robot that will wander the wastelands of future battlefields, scooping up organic debris — such as dead bodies — and burning them to fuel their advance. The call it an EATR: Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot.

It's kind of sweet, in a morbid way. It recycles! It uses renewable energy! Put a gun on it, and it could even harvest its own fuel as it mows its way through the enemy's cities!

To be perfectly fair, though, the company building it doesn't talk about using bodies for energy, but is more about generic biomass. Bodies are probably messy and inefficient compared to hunks of wood or corn stubble. It's Fox News that emphasized the corpse-eating idea, which somehow seems like just the kind of thing Fox would find copacetic.
-John Byrne

http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/07/new-military-robots-could-feed-on-corpses/

What is this sick idea? The Matrix meets Terminator?

I know, right?

Well, hopefully Terminator will come from the future to insure someone survives when the machines start feeding on us.

Brilliance...just sheer brilliance...the next time my government decides I need something for protection, I'll just walk away...they've been an "awesome!" help in the past...

i seen that earlier

maybe call them the zombie patrol

wonder what the safety mechanism will be

man is so smart it will create a machine that will be able to destroy mankind

That sounds pretty awesome actually

Just a thought, but didn't Britian deploy a satellite called skynet?

http://gizmodo.com/5016312/britain-launches-final-real+life-skynet-satellite-dubs-it-skynet-with-no-sense-of-irony

Dang, just read the article.

It would be so amusing if the primary control interface was named HAL.

Okay, it may not have what I'm calling a primary control interface. Or it may be called something entirely different. But I want HAL in there somewhere.

i'll be back

Why don't they use that technology to fuel our vehicles???
Pick up road-kill. No more, wondering what to do with Grandma after she kicks the bucket.

solent fuel is not far off


just a thought ...........

I for one could never figure out why we dumped all those preservatives in the body and sealed them in some airtight casket and then stick them in cement anyways... we need that for the soil, plow them up and right into the river. It's a freaking corpse, no body is getting hurt, unless you take into account some forgone delusion.

When i die, put me in a pine box and bury me 9 feet under a family farm's crop field.

Those people in the Pentagon are sickos

Think about it a minute.
Much of what goes to the dump and landfills is organic. That stuff could be used for fuel. We are running out of space to store garbage. Look at the health affects of people who live on old landfills. The breakdown of some materials takes decades and the exaust from the decay is poison and seeps into the homes built on old landfills.
If that technology were applied to autos and the processing plant could be part of the system, you could procerss the materials while you drive.
Cut your grass,the clippings are fuel. Clean out the fridge, leftovers turned into fuel. That unexpected litter of cats or dogs, now you won't have to waste your day sitting in front of Wal-Mart trying to give them away,

Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust!!!!! Back in my pot smokin days, when I died I wanted put in a pipe and smoked amongst friends....He!! just throw me in the tank and drive to Ohio!!!!!! I was always told I was full of shi....GAS

Sounds like a plot to a b movie.... At at we'll have something to defend use when the zombie apocalypse comes...



Great idea, they are some people at are experimenting with it now, but I haven't heard much of it. Now that I think about I haven't heard much about alternate fuel in the mainstream media for a while now. I'll stop at the using kitten and puppies as fuel though.

http://gizmodo.com/5016312/britain-launches-final-real+life-skynet-satellite-dubs-it-skynet-with-no-sense-of-irony

It was nice knowing you all..

Biomass-Eating Military Robot Is a Vegetarian, Company Says

Thursday, July 16, 2009

The story that originally appeared at this address has been revised.

Click here to read the revised story

FOX NEWS
Thursday, July 16, 2009


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532492,00.html

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what another story changes to protect the guilty????????????

HA! you gotta love the backtracking on this one.