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Slug eating robots on the march to a garden near you |
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Environment
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Written by Danny Penman
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 No slug is safe now that British scientists have developed a robot to seek out and destroy the slimy creatures.
The SlugBot, developed by researchers at the University of the West of England, can catch up to 100 slugs an hour.
SlugBot then uses their rotting bodies to generate electricity. This is then used to move the robot around in search of new prey.
“Slugs are slow, stupid and easy to turn into electricity,” says Ian Kelly, SlugBot’s developer. “We wanted a robot that could catch its own food to turn it into electricity. Rats are too fast so we settled on slugs because they couldn’t run away. ”
Dr Kelly claims that SlugBot offers many advantages over hedgehogs, which are slugs’ natural predator. The robot works around the clock, eats only slugs and is intelligent enough to avoid the headlights of on-coming cars at night.
“Besides,” he says. “The build-up of pesticides in slugs is killing off the hedgehogs. It’s a vicious circle. More slugs mean more slug pellets which means fewer hedgehogs to eat them.”
SlugBot uses an infrared eye to track the slugs and satellite navigation to find its way around. When it finds a slug, it scoops it up and stores it in a hopper. They are later killed and their bodies rot to produce methane gas. This is turned into electricity using a fuel cell.
Dr Kelly hopes that SlugBots will be produced commercially in three or to four years’ time. At the moment, each one costs about £2000 to build but he hopes that mass-production will lower the cost to £500.
Given that Britain alone spends £20 million a year on slug pellets, he is banking on a huge market for the machines. He believes that we will see co-ordinated hunting parties of SlugBots sweeping through the British countryside.
He says: “The robots will share a map between them showing the best hunting areas. The map and satellite navigation will make sure that they don’t get in each others way or go back to the same place two days on the run.”
“I can see a time when our robots will be released into the wild. They will still be pretty stupid but they will be there.”
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