The stuff of nightmares: Biomass-fueled autonomous robot

Cyclone Power Technologies, which we've previously featured for its engine that runs on waste heat, has recently been awarded a contract to build the first stages of an Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (seriously, eater?) for a project that's sponsored by DARPA. Basically, as we understand it, what we have here is a robot that can gather its own biomass fuel, deposit it into its own external combustion chamber and recharge itself. Seriously, is this a good thing?

The robot's power source could come from such diverse sources as waste products like wood chips or grass clippings, vegetable oil or even gasoline, diesel, kerosene and alcohol. All of this will take place outside the actual robot, as the radial 6-cylinder 16-horsepower Cyclone Waste Heat Engine will recharge the robot's battery pack through the use of a generator. If successful, such a device could have wide ranging civil and military applications. We shudder to consider all of them.

[Source: Green Car Congress]