EATR – A steam-powered, biomass-eating military robot for Pentagon
As the week ends, it’s time to clear some dust over a green technology that was wrongly understood as a carnivore bot. It was reported that Pentagon’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot, aka, 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.” And this bit of information got slightly distorted, even the one that appeared on FOXNews.com, as it was misunderstood that the EATR will eat animal or human remains. However, it is not so as the Cyclone Power Technologies has developed the EATR such that it runs on fuel no scarier than twigs, grass clippings, wood chips and small, plant-based items. This robot will be powered by the Waste Heat Engine developed by Cyclone, of Pompano Beach, Fla., which uses an “external combustion chamber” burning up fuel to heat up water in a closed loop, generating electricity. Conceived to power itself from the vegetative remains, such a bot can be the base for an alternatively charged transport, ambulance, communications center or even a mobile gunship in war zone.
