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Registered
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: secure undisclosed locationville
Posts: 24,344
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Eatr
Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 Robotic Technology Inc. EATR robots roam a barren landscape as an unmanned drone flies overhead in an artist's rendering. 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. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,532492,00.html?test=latestnews
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1971 R75/5 2003 R1100S 2013 Ural Patrol 2023 R18 |
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07-14-2009, 10:37 AM
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Registered
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 4,844
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now thats FEEL GOOD STORY!
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07-14-2009, 10:42 AM
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Registered
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 8,673
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An EATR hearse sounds, um, like a picnic.
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07-14-2009, 11:02 AM
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Michael Delaney wanna-be
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: 1K Oaks, CA
Posts: 1,533
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It sounds like the Delorean from Back to the Future II
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88 Carrera Cab C.R.A.P. Gruppe Member #7 |
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07-14-2009, 01:31 PM
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