Carnivorous Military Robots!

[Sionnach Glic]

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.

Source

[Monroe]

Reminds me of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxJLUZWPEb8

This is pretty cool. I'm wondering PETA's stance on this.

[Tyyr]

I realize the dead bodies thing is probably just hype, but doesn't anyone think that might go over poorly if one of these things did do that after it was released? I mean it might go over badly with our enemy if our robots just casually scooped up their fallen comrades and turned them into fuel.

[IanKennedy]

Or your own troops, after all if US forces can't tell friend from foe then how's this machine going to do it.

[Mark]

If this were ever to actually be produced, the US would quickly become a bunch of war criminals. How would it seperate the dead from wounded for example?

[Sionnach Glic]

Meh, what's the difference?

[Mark]

I remember in basic our Drill Sergeant (he was a nut job) was teaching us the "Rules of Combat" that said you can't turn around to execute the wounded, but you COULD shoot on the initial charge. He said "So ALWAYS take that half a second and put one between his eyes BEFORE you move on, because we can't kill him later, then we have to feed the bastard!"

[Tsukiyumi]

...He said "So ALWAYS take that half a second and put one between his eyes BEFORE you move on, because we can't kill him later, then we have to feed the b*****d!"

Sounds about right. "Double tap" is what I understand to be the correct technique: one in the chest, one in the head. Then he can't shoot you from behind as you advance.

[Monroe]

Sounds like a good plan.

[Tsukiyumi]

Hey, just shooting someone doesn't guarantee they die at once.