SlugBot - A robot that finds and eats slugs
From the SlugBot site:The aim of this project is to build a robot with animal-like self-sufficiency in both information and energy. We don't expect to be able to match the speed and performance of a cheetah chasing a zebra, within the time frame of this project, so we decided to chase something slightly slower ... slugs. Apart from their relative ease of capture (compared to zebras), slugs were chosen because they are a major pest, are reasonably plentiful, have no hard shell or skeleton, and are reasonably large. It is also more technologically interesting to catch mobile prey rather than just grazing on plants. Although SlugBot is not yet fully developed, the plans for it are amazing - they aim to have a fueling station that processes the slugs into electrical energy that is usable by robots, this station is fed with slugs by one or more SlugBot robots that move around, locating and collecting slugs, then returning to the fueling station to drop off the slugs and recharge its batteries. Currently they have developed the collector robot, with red-light image recognition that interprets what shapes on the ground are slugs, then the long arm of the robot is deployed to pick up the slug and place it in a container aboard the robot. SlugBot has been designed to use very little energy for motion, the long arm takes less power than moving the whole robot - which is vital as slugs don't provide much electrical power and loads have to be collected to charge the robot for a small movement. The robot was developed at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (www.brl.ac.uk) in the UK. The scientists researched where the SlugBot would be likely to find lots of slugs, and apparently in agricultural fields of winter wheat slugs are plentiful with up to 200 per square metre. Slugs are also most active during dawn and dusk, they stay underground during the day - so the robot must conserve its energy during daytime, ready to pounce on the slugs when they emerge. Watch a video of SlugBot picking up a piece of banana: Click the Play button below...
To find out more about SlugBot visit: http://www-robotics.usc.edu/~ikelly/tta.html. Email this story to a friend  Add this link to:            
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