Researchers are building a robotic Lionfish exterminator

We joke around a lot about bringing about a horrific robot apocalypse, but let's get real: sometimes, building a killer robot is just the right thing to do. Well, at least when those robots are being used to cull invasive species. Researchers at Robots In Service of the Environment (RISE) are developing a robot to fight an invasive population of Lionfish that's threatening ecosystems off the coast of Florida as well as in the Caribbean and Bermuda. Creating a robot to exterminate a specific species sounds a bit harsh, but it's an environmental issue: the Lionfish population in question isn't native to Caribbean waters, and are don't register as predators to the local wildlife. By decimating the area's food supply, the voracious carnivores are killing coral reef systems and starving other species.