Robots That Eat Bugs and Plants For Power

Crunch'n'Munch EATR will grab plants with its robotic arm, chop them with a mini chainsaw, and burn them in its onboard steam combustion engine to make power. Francis Govers III

From Popular Science:

Controversial robots devour biomass to gain energy independence.

No matter how intelligent a robot might be, it’s nice knowing you can pull its plug to halt the anti-human insurrection. Whoops, not anymore. A new cohort of ’bots that make energy by gobbling organic matter could be the beginning of truly autonomous machines.

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Cyclone Biomass Engine Takes Next Step In Powering DARPA's EATR Bot, A Hungry Hungry Sentinel

LIGHT MY FIRE: Harry Schoell shows the uncovered combustion chamber in his steam engine. John B. Carnett.

From Popsci.com:

A waste heat engine would allow a robot to feed off grass, furniture, and dead bodies.

A DARPA-funded robot that refuels itself on wood, grass--even decaying biomatter--whatever it can consume has met its perfect match--a biomass engine system called the Cyclone which we featured last year in our annual Invention Awards. Cyclone has just completed trials of their engine that will eventually digest EATR's foraged meals into power, just like Mr. Fusion.

The Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) is a prototype military reconnaissance 'bot that could keep going and going, except that it's not dependent on long-lasting batteries. The robot would instead use a waste heat engine developed by Cyclone Power Technologies to continually fuel itself on plants and other biomass from the surrounding environment.

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