By Jo Best, 9 September 2004 14:30
NEWS It's comfortable in environments that would kill a human, it smells of faeces and it eats flies. The EcoBot II is a robot that might not appear to have a lot going for it - but it could yet revolutionise robotics.
The fly-eating robot is the brainchild of scientists from the University of the West of England and is designed to be able to operate autonomously in situations where humans can't - like in areas polluted by toxic gas, for example - according to the New Scientist.
The robot can also keep its own power up - by converting flies into fuel. The current version of the robot is fed manually with flies by its creators but the scientists are hoping the next version of the EcoBot will be able to attract them itself - by pumping out the smell of human excrement to entice the winged insects and then sucking them inside with a specially designed pump.
Once caught, the flies are digested, turned into energy and stored in the robot's eight fuel cells.
However, according to the New Scientist, you shouldn't expect the EcoBot II to be breaking any speed records - it can only take one 2cm step every 12 minutes.
Comments
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1. Pierre Ketteridge
If it can also clear up, hoover & make a bed then it sounds ideal for sending undetected into my son's bedroom...
2. royston
hmmmm...wonders laughingly as to how long it will be before said robot evolves to "sucking up humans" ie; the son of the above post,instead of flies or the pet cat. ha ha ha, "you havent tidied your bedroom son,i,ll send the robot to sort you out unles you tidy it up NOW! ha ha ha ha this news item is too much! has cartoon visions of boy running in abject terror up the stairs, magic!