This article was taken from the April 2012 issue of Wired
magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before
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Machines traditionally rely on humans to provide access to
electricity. But what if they could generate their own fuel?
Devised by a team at Bristol University, EcoBot III is
claimed to be the world's first self-sustaining robot. It collects
water and acetate; microbes in its "stomach" break this down and
pass it to 48 fuel cells that turn the fluid into electricity,
powering the 63-cm-tall EcoBot to forage again -- for up to eight
days before it needs cleaning.
"One possible application would be to have a fleet of machines
living in the sewers, cleaning while gathering their own food,"
explains Ioannis Ieropoulos, a senior research fellow at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. The
team has been working on some new applications: "The next EcoBot
will work like a conventional flytrap, whereby the robot attracts
its own food. Flies will be the source of energy." EcoBot can also
turn urine into electricity.
What happens to all the products EcoBot doesn't use? It passes
semi-solid pellets into a litter tray. Like a cat. Ew.