Company Denies its Robots Feed on the Dead

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/company-denies-its-robots-feed-on-the-dead/

by vaksel • 17 years ago

53 17 17 years ago

sachinag• 17 years ago

Yeah, I'd like to see them get a cadaver and prove that their robots don't feast on the dead. I don't trust a corporation farther than I can throw it. And I can only throw a dead body about four feet.

lallysingh• 17 years ago

This is pretty much the best press release I've ever seen in my life.

On a much less apocalyptic note, there is some great lawnbot potential here. A robot that cuts your grass and eats it for fuel sounds pretty good to me.

kirubakaran• 17 years ago

You mean like a goat, that also gives you milk and love?

Janzert• 17 years ago

Don't forget the distinctive odor that allows you to tell if you have arrived near that love, even in complete darkness. Of course if the new biomass engine does not lack this feature it probably ruins it for any covert use.

vaksel• 17 years ago

Goat won't eat the grass uniformly. So you won't have a nice looking lawn. + unless you have a mansion with a huge lawn the goat will starve after a few months.

tomjen• 17 years ago

Chickens are better for that purposes, since their excrements are some of the best fertilizer around. They also smell better than the goat.

mseebach• 17 years ago

You'll want to leave the grass-clippings in the lawn for fertilisation. Sure, you could add fertilizers, but then why not just give the lawn bot a place to plug-in (like a Roomba) instead? It's easier and I'm pretty sure it's cheaper, also.

Also, I'm not sure the world is ready for autonomous robots with blades. Imagine it foraging onto the neighbouring lawn, prompting the interest of a 4-year old... ugh.

dpifke• 17 years ago

Best quote ever:

"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

dave_au• 17 years ago

Then who's mission is it?

dkokelley• 17 years ago

How much energy can a robot extract from biomass? I remember hearing about a similar technology a few years back, but the process didn't recover the energy used to gather it.

trafficlight• 17 years ago

Well, it worked in the Matrix.

RK• 17 years ago

How bout SlugBot, that runs on the garden slugs it catches? (from Wired 2001):

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2001/10/4715...

aarongough• 17 years ago

Wow. I hadn't seen that before... That is actually quite scary!

tjic• 17 years ago

I note that iRobot, Boston Dynamics and other robotics firms have not yet denied that their robots feed on the dead.

What are they hiding?

mattmaroon• 17 years ago

Plants are a gateway biomass. One minute you're snacking on some grass clippings, then before you know it you're eating whole families alive.

Company Denies its Robots Feed on the Dead

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