It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology -- and a 20th-century horror movie."Zombie Steambots From Hell!"
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.
"First it consumed all our fuel;
then it turned it's hungry eyes on mankind!"
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.
"Biomass is PEOPLE!"
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.
"Watch as screaming people are thrust into it's flaming maw!"
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.
"Comsuming all before it, until the planet is left a rocky, er, rock!"
Upon the EATR platform, the Pentagon could build all sorts of things -- a transport, an ambulance, a communications center, even a mobile gunship.
"First it kills, then it feeds!"
In press materials, Robotic Technology presents EATR as an essentially benign artificial creature that fills its belly through "foraging," despite the obvious military purpose.
Robotic Technology, a division of SkyNet, Inc.