EATR

Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot – a vegetarian military android.

Commenting on the misinformation surrounding the EATR (Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot), The Guardian’s Bobbie Johnson wrote:

It sounded like something pulled straight from a grisly scene in Terminator: an unstoppable military robot that powered itself by devouring everything in its path – including trees, grass and even, according to reports, dead bodies.

But after a string of headlines that labeled the machine a “corpse eater” and “creepy,” the robot’s creators have gone on a P.R. offensive to extinguish the rumor that their invention will feed on human or animal flesh.

The machine’s inventors say that the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot – known as EATR for short – does indeed power its “biomass engine” by digesting organic material, but that it is not intended to chomp its way through battlefields of fallen soldiers.

A rather sheepish revised report on Fox News noted:

Contrary to reports, including one that appeared on FOXNews.com, theEATR will not eat animal or human remains.

Dr. Bob Finkelstein, president of R.T.I. [Robotic Technology Inc – one of the companies involved in making the robot] and a cybernetics expert, said the EATR would be programmed to recognize specific fuel sources and avoid others.

“If it’s not on the menu, it’s not going to eat it,” Finkelstein said.

In a recent press release, the robot’s developers (R.T.I. and Cylone Power Technologies) assured people that the EATR is “strictly vegetarian,” running “on fuel no scarier than twigs, grass clippings and wood chips.” And stated:

Desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Conventions, and is certainly not something sanctioned by DARPA, Cyclone or R.T.I.