Predator Robot

Scientists have created a robot that eats living organisms

Ilya Vedmedenko, Naked Science, based on New Scientist: Soft robot with a mouth and gut can forge for its own food

Experts from the UK have created a robot that is able to eat living organisms and get the energy it needs due to this.

The NewScientist edition introduces us to the results of the work of scientists representing the University of Bristol and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. The material is dedicated to a very unusual robot that looks like insects moving on the surface of water. But the main feature of the product lies not in its appearance, but in its capabilities. The fact is that the robot can receive energy by absorbing living organisms.

In the design of the product, scientists used a soft polymer membrane through which water is absorbed with living organisms. The robot was equipped with a microbial fuel cell acting as its "stomach". There, the food decomposes into bacteria, due to which the machine receives electricity. A hole located in the back of the robot is used for waste emissions.

Living organisms alone are not enough to fully power the device – biological material can give it only a small part of the energy. However, scientists are gradually increasing the efficiency of microbial fuel cells, increasing their number in the robot.

The developers believe that the robot can be used to solve practical problems. In particular, in aquatic environments with a high level of pollution. The advantage of such a device is that it can work for a long time without human intervention.

Biomass-eating miniature robots are considered one of the possible scenarios of the end of the world, dubbed "gray slime". We are talking about uncontrolled self-replicating nanorobots that will perform the reproduction function inherent in them and gradually fill the entire planet.

Recall that not so long ago, a group of specialists from the United States developed a miniature autonomous robot that is similar in shape to an octopus. Its body reaches two centimeters in height. Silicone rubber was used as the material. The fuel is a 50% solution of hydrogen peroxide.

Article by Hemma et al. Towards Energetically Autonomous Forging Soft Robots is published in the journal Soft Robotics – VM.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru 02.11.2016