Cicada eliminator bot

May 17, 2004 2 Replies
G


Is anyone going to build a cicada pest killing bot?


>How would you go after them? Use sound location?

Here is how you go about it:


[1] make an estimate of how many cicadas are in the swarm that is about to emerge. Hint: it's 100,000 to 1.5 million cicadas per acre...
[2] Estimate the maximum rate of cicada killing that a reasonable robot can handle.
[3] Figure out how many robots you need to do the job. Compare the cost with how much money Bill Gates has. Figure out your power supply requirements. Compare with the output of Hoover dam. Figure out the raw material needed to build your robots. Compare with the annual production of US Steel.
[4] Reflect on the futility of attempting to counter a self-reproducing system with a one-by-one manufactured system.
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D

Project scope is too big.

Perhaps redefine it to be: Create a robot to hunt down and destroy a single cicada in a 10'X10' area. Agreed, there are better solutions, but not many quite as fun.

For example, back in Texas, I was "bugged" by one cicada just outside my ground floor window, never found it. but it kept me up night after night. a mini-Terminator would have been great.

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S

--What you need is a flying vacuum cleaner, or maybe a flying fly strip; i.e. a sticky bot?

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