[wordup] Atonomous Slug-eating Robot

[Adam Shand]

Also from the Eristocracy I'm sending this little gem about things to do 
with your microwave, I sent out another page which had some of this in it
but not this page.  Just kinda neat :-)

  http://margo.student.utwente.nl/el/microwave/  

Via: The Eristocracy <Eristocracy at merrymeet.com>
From: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011212/tc/britain_robot_dc_2.html

A Robot That Thrives on Slugs
By Michelle Green

LONDON (Reuters) - 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 Britain's 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 rotting
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 2-foot-high machine uses an image sensor that beams out red light to
pinpoint the slugs, which emit a different infra-red wavelength from worms
and snails.

It then uses a carbon fiber 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 slug sludge 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.

The news will disappoint Britain's farmers who spend an average 20 million
pounds a year trying to eradicate the slimy creatures.