The Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR) was a project by Robotic Technology Inc. (RTI) and Cyclone Power Technologies Inc. to develop a robotic vehicle that could forage for plant biomass to fuel itself, theoretically operating indefinitely. It was a concept developed between 2003 and 2009 as part of the

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Ad ...

military projects for the

United States military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is th ...

. The project elicited some internet and media rumors after news circulated that the robot would (or at least could) ingest human remains. Cyclone Power Technologies stated that animal or human biomass was not intended to be used in the ''waste heat'' combustion engine of the

robot A robot is a machine—especially one programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the control may be embedded within. Robots may ...

, Press release, RTI Inc. (2009 July 16)
"Press Release"
''Cyclone Power Technologies Responds to Rumors about “Flesh Eating” Military Robot'', pp. 1–2. and that sensors would be able to distinguish foraged materials, although the project overview from RTI listed other sources including chicken fat.

Power plant

The robot was powered by a steam engine built by the Cyclone Power Technologies company called the

Cyclone Waste Heat Engine The Cyclone Waste Heat Engine (WHE) is a small steam engine developed to produce power from steam created from waste heat. It is an offshoot of the development of the Cyclone Mark V Engine by the company Cyclone Power Technologies of Pompano Be ...

, which produced power through external combustion of biomass (i.e. combustion outside of the engine), an example of a

Rankine cycle The Rankine cycle is an idealized thermodynamic cycle describing the process by which certain heat engines, such as steam turbines or reciprocating steam engines, allow mechanical work to be extracted from a fluid as it moves between a heat sourc ...

engine. The engine would power the vehicle's movement as well as being used to recharge the batteries that run the sensors, arms and ancillary devices. Press release, RTI Inc. (2009 April 6)
"Brief Project Overview"
''EATR: Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot'', pp. 22.

Fuel sources

The EATR was programmed to consume certain types of vegetation as biomass to convert into fuel, and only those types of vegetation. EATR could also use other fuels such as gasoline, kerosene, cooking oil, or solar energy. The company also included "chicken fat" as one of its proposed fuel sources in the project overview. The system was quoted as delivering an expected 100 miles (~161 km) of driving on 150 lbs (~68 kg) of vegetation.

References

{{Reflist

External links

EATR at Robotic Technology
Military robots Biomass DARPA Robots of the United States 2000s robots Unmanned ground combat vehicles