Have you heard of the robot that pretends to be a living thing in order to kill its target? Sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, right? Well, there’s a new terminator in town and instead of Sarah Connor, it targets ticks.
According to CNET, the Virginia Military Institute has created the Tick Rover, a robot that roams your backyard and hunts the small arthropods. The Rover works by luring the blood-sucking pests into its path and killing them with insecticide.
The amazing thing about the Tick Rover is how it lures its victims to their doom, a tube that emits CO2. The ticks sense the CO2 and think the robot it’s a breathing animal. The tick goes in for an easy meal, but gets poisoned by an insecticide laced cloth the robot drags behind it. Tests show that the Rover kills 75%-100% of ticks in its path. The creators of the Tick Rover are looking to commercialize the robot, so if ticks are taking over your backyard, go all Skynet on them.
Check out the Rover in action:
[youtube “width”=640]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkLIZzBwCrA[/youtube]
