Archives for June 27, 2009

Robot Furniture Can Rid Home of Vermin (and Eat Them!)

Imagine a lamp that is a robot, and then imagine that this robot lamp just happens to also trap and eat flies.  The next stage in domestic robots could be robotic furniture that doubles as a mousetrap or a flytrap.  Not only do these robots fit in a room as furniture and eat pests-they can use the pests as fuel to power themselves.

RobotNext had an early post that covered an insect digesting robot called the Ecobot.  These furniture robots are based on the same research carried out at the University of Bristol. 

James Auger, at the Royal College of Art, London and his collaborator and fellow designer Jimmy Loizeau have constructed domestic robots in the form of furniture pieces that can sense their surrounding and learn from them.  These bots can also perform basic tasks for people, such as telling the time or lighting a room.

There are two references to this post listed below.  The first is from ZDNet and the second is from New Scientist.  Click on the links below for more of the story.


Photo Credit:  ZDNet Blogs

Robo-furniture eats household pests
ZDNet Blogs
The idea of using vermin as fuel was inspired by researchers at the Bristol Robotics Lab, UK. They already developed a fly-powered robot in '04 and have
and more »

Robo-furniture eats household pests – ZDNet Blogs
Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:59:47 GMT

copylamprobot

Image: Auger-Loizeau

Futuristic-looking robots like Honda's sleek humanoid Asimo don't cut it for designer James Auger, at the Royal College of Art, London. Believing that they need to fit unobtrusively into the home, he has built robotic furniture. And, believing they need to be useful and entertaining, he has given the furniture an appetite for vermin, like mice and flies.

Gallery: Domestic robots with a taste for flesh-New Scientist
Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:19:00 GMT

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