Dead Flies Power Flesh-Eating Robot
By Sean Markey, National Geographic Kids News (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/kids/2006/04/robots.html) |
Robots are
supposed to run on batteries, right? Well not all of them.
Scientists in
England have built a series of small robots that get their energy from dead
flies, rotten apples, or sugar.
One robot,
called Slugbot, was even designed to hunt garden slugs for dinner!
What's up with
all that gross food?
Well, scientists
at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory want to invent robots that can operate for
long periods of time in dark, dirty, or dangerous places.
Many of those
spots, like the seafloor or Antarctica, don't have electrical sockets.
So inventor
Chris Melhuish came up with a better idea: Build robots that get their energy
just like animals do—by hunting and eating food from their environment.
The robots
digest their grub in a series of stomach-like devices called microbial fuel
cells that are full of bacteria!
The bacteria do
the real eating, munching dead flies or other food fed into the fuel cells.
As the bacteria
chow down, they release electrons. Electrons are charged particles that flow to
form electricity.
One robot,
called Ecobot II, could run for 12 days on a diet of eight flies! (You'd still
get a lot more power from one AA battery, though.)
Melhuish says
his team is now working on a new and improved robot, called Ecobot III, which
will have a better digestion system.
It seems that
after an eight-fly dinner, Ecobot II couldn't get rid of the leftover "waste."
Maybe restrooms
in the future will have signs for boys, girls, and robots.
|