Conceptual military robots to get the munchies for human crunchies [Terminator in the Flesh?]

If the above title doesn’t make you cringe or feel uncomfortable, the following information might just succeed. Carbon based fuels that have propelled pretty much every moving machine since the gasoline engine was first invented have completely taken a hold of our society. With global warming climate change wreaking havoc on our little blue planet, fuel resources drying up, and tensions with the gatekeepers of said resources not getting any more rosy, the quest for alternative fuels or energy sources becomes very important. While this quest isn’t a new one, the last several years have seen (more publicly anyway) more alternative energy sources explored and tested.

The military as of late has been working on special robots that could make energy not from the dirty old carbon based fuels or available everywhere solar power, but instead something that is a little more living: biomass. Now biomass normally brings images of cute little plants and other planty looking material, but, if you’re sending machines onto a battlefield that seek out living energy sources, how easy do you think you could create one that would literally eat your enemies? Yes, the robots’ munchies for the human crunchies is on. Is a real life terminator/war of the worlds on the horizon?

These new robots the military is working on, EATR robots use both human input and their own AI to make plans ranging from 50ms up to 24 hours. You may be thinking cool…a truly smart robot that can see the task at hand and make intelligent decisions based on said input. Ok great. But just think about if you are stranded alone with the robot and he/she/it is low on energy. You on one hand can go more than 24 hours without food and can learn to put the hunger and pain in the back of your mind. The robot on the other hand at 23 hours and 45 minutes will be preparing it’s little cutters in anticipation of your juicy biomass filled body so that it instead of you can make it to hour 25. See the small problem?