Slug-Eating Robot (fwd)

A bit OT, but as some of us are interested in 'bots.....

----------------------- begin forwarded message from House, David Alan -----------------------

From: "House, David Alan" <housed@...>
Subject: {SD-2} Slug-Eating Robot
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 17:00:49 -0500

Robot thrives on slugs

Reuters News Agency
BREAKING NEWS


London For centuries the humble slug has eaten its way through the
world's vegetable patches, frustrating farmers and gardeners alike, but
thanks to British scientists the great plant muncher is about to be
munched.

Scientists at the University of West England have developed the
"SlugBot," a prototype robot capable of hunting down more than 100 slugs
an hour.

It operates after dark when slugs are most active and uses their bodies
to generate the electricity it needs to power itself.

The SlugBot is the brainchild of engineers at the university's
Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory who wanted to build the world's
first fully autonomous robot.

"Slugs were chosen because they are a major pest, are reasonably
plentiful, have no hard shell of skeleton, and are reasonably large," Dr.
Ian Kelly, SlugBot's creator, said in a statement.

The 60-centimetre-high machine uses an image censor that beams out red
light to pinpoint the slugs, which emit a different infrared wavelength
than worms and snails.

It then uses a carbon-fibre arm with a three-fingered claw grabber to
pick up the slugs and store them in a tank.

After a hard night of slug busting, the robot returns home and unloads
its victims into a fermentation tank. While the SlugBot recharges, the
fermentation tank turns the slugs into electricity.

But the robot, voted one of the best inventions of the year by Time
magazine, has attracted some criticism.

One Time reader called the invention "reckless" in a letter to the
magazine. "To create robots that devour flesh is to step over a line that
we would be insane to cross," he said.

Gardeners were more welcoming. Adam Pasco, editor of the BBC Gardener's
World magazine, told the Daily Mail: "Anything that would prove a
fool-proof method of destroying slugs would be fantastic."

A spokeswoman for the university told Reuters on Wednesday there were no
plans to release the SlugBot on the commercial market. "It was a proof of
concept machine only," she said.

That news will disappoint Britain's farmers who spend an average Pound
Sterling20-million a year trying to eradicate the slimy creatures.

----------------------- end forwarded message from House, David Alan -----------------------

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