I would love to have a few of these for contracts. lol It seems everywhere you go for a deployment, there are usually flies or mosquitos. So I applaud any devilish and ingenious ways of eradicating the things. I think this contraption takes the cake. –Matt
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Carnivorous Robots Eager to Eat Your Pests
UK-based designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau believe that, if robots are ever to be welcomed into people’s homes, they’ll need to fit in with the rest of the furniture, and earn their keep. Their prototypes trap and digest (microbial fuel cell) pests like flies and mice to gain energy – see video demonstrating how they work.
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Fly-stealing robot
This robot is meant to appeal to people with a dark sense of humour.
Its design is intended to encourage spiders to build webs between the pegs on the backboard.
Any flies trapped in the web are tracked by a camera (right).
After no movement has been sensed for 10 minutes, the robotic arm (left) picks out the dead fly and drops it into the fuel cell, generating electricity to partially power the camera and robotic arm.
The robot gets the rest of its energy from a fuel cell housed underneath a conventional ultraviolet fly killer.
(Image: Auger-Loizeau)
Link here.