Autonomous eulijale robot

2004/11/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Robotika

It has been invented at the University of Bristol (Great Britain) and its tasks are not complicated. Ecobot II will work as a sensor measuring concentrations of toxic gases or extreme temperatures, for example. It will also send the collected data.

The particularity of Ecobot II lies in its path to energy. Flies are the energy source of the robot. Ecobot II captures flies and digestion in a special reactor. In this digestion the electricity necessary for the operation of the robot is generated.

The robot uses the smell of feces to attract flies. In the reactor there is waste water in anaerobic environment and the fly becomes food for bacteria present in the wastewater. Bacterial enzymes divide the chitin from the exoskeleton of the fly and metabolize the sugar molecules that form during fragmentation. In this process the electrons are released and used to generate the electric current. This energy is enough for the robot to move a little every 12 minutes and do its job.

Before there was a similar robot, but it used refined sugar to produce energy. The taste of Ecobot II is not as fine as the other, but being so primitive in this case is an advantage, cheaper and independent.