Article describes a DARPA robot that powers itself by gathering and fueling itself from biomass. This is apparently an approach to energy-autonomous recon robots (harvest grasses and plants where it goes) that has amusingly terrifying connotations when you consider the mental image of a chainsaw-wielding robot capturing and devouring, say, people.

It seems that DARPA, which once built things that seemed like the fevered imaginations of a 14 year old boy, is now building things that seem like the fevered imaginations of a 7 year old boy.

In my opinion this is a good thing. I'd much rather have the things that my younger imagination thought up, because they are almost certainly cooler.

Making the things that people want who have no idea of the things they aren't supposed to want.

<sarcasm> Surely any robot built by the U.S. government will be bound by Asimov's three laws of robotics. </sarcasm>

From the RTI website, a presentation they supposedly gave to the Army War College Strategic Studies Institute in April:

A code of moral behavior for intelligent robots will be developed. Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws are insufficient (especially for military).

David Langford's Three Laws:

1. A robot will not harm authorized Government personnel but will terminate intruders with extreme prejudice.

2. A robot will obey the orders of authorized personnel except where such orders conflict with the Third Law.

3. A robot will guard its own existence with lethal antipersonnel weaponry, because a robot is bloody expensive.

(Langford is an SF writer. You might know him from his "basilisk" stories--if not, go read them sometime.)

I understand that. My sarcasm was apparently a failed attempt at being somewhat humorous after a long week.

Both of our posts would be funnier if the project was anything other than vaporware.

This massively improves my opinion of what DARPA is spending my money on.

Getting worked up over the potential of a DARPA research project is like getting yourself worked up over a popular girl when you were in high school. There's almost no chance those ideas will come to fruition, and on the slim chance something does, it will be in the far off future and nothing like you initially thought.

And this my friends is why government research is awesome. DARPA and crackpot scientists--coming to a future near you.

This is linkbait. Biomass can mean plant matter. I've worked on DARPA funded robots.

From The Register... I'm not holding my breath.

They cite their sources - just follow the trail a few more steps.

http://www.robotictechnologyinc.com/index.php/EATR:

At the sixth (System of Systems) level, which has not yet been implemented, the 4D/RCS serves as an overarching intelligent control and decision system for (all or part of) a manifold of distributed unmanned and manned platforms, unattended sensors and weapons, and control centers.

Ambitious!

SkyNet, here we come.

is there any non-military research left in the US?

There's plenty, but in pales in both breadth and depth (number of sources and amount of money offered) compared to DOD funding.