Maybe we could arm one up and send it into the next "Holy (fill in the blank)" that the scum in Iraq use to hide out in.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5941187/

Smelly robot eats flies to generate its own power
Designed for working in high temperature, toxic environments

Updated: 1:17 p.m. ET Sept. 8, 2004

LONDON - British scientists are developing a robot that will generate its own power by eating flies.

The idea is to produce electricity by catching flies and digesting them in special fuel cells that will break down sugar in the insects' skeletons and release electrons that will drive an electric current.

"Called EcoBot II, the robot is part of a drive to make "release and forget" robots that can be sent into dangerous or inhospitable areas to carry our remote industrial or military monitoring of, say, temperature or toxic gas concentrations," New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.

Chris Melhuish and his team, who are developing the robot, have to manually feed the flies to EcoBot II because they are still designing some type of pump to suck the insects into it.

"One of the great things about flies is that you can get them to come to you," he said.

Hence the downside of the fully autonomous robot: it will have to use sewage or excrement to attract the flies and is bound to smell appalling.

I need one at the office.  I could use the bullshit around there to attract fuel.

It's an interesting idea, but it's only half-developed.

The ideal solution would be for the robot to produce its own excrement, thereby fulfilling the elusive dream of all physicists: A poopertial-motion machine.