Re: Slug-Eating Robot (fwd)

If this is an small step, wait a few iterations and you'll see a
robot powered by Soilit Green.

Maybe from those city dwelling slugs called street people ?

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Bill Vance <ccq@x> wrote:
> A bit OT, but as some of us are interested in 'bots.....
>
> ----------------------- begin forwarded message from House, David
Alan -----------------------
>
> From: "House, David Alan" <housed@i...>
> 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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