ROBOT OF THE WEEK: WEEK 1 - ECOBOT III
Ecobot III is the most developed robot in the Ecobot series. The idea behind the series? Autonomy through self-sustenance. It has been developed by researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. How does it sustain itself? Why the same way you do! It eats! What does it eat? What you eat! Well, what you ate. The robot is powered by partially processed sewage. It takes the nutrients from this muck and sends them to an array of Microbial Fuel Cells which metabolize it so as to generate electricity. It recycles this waste to get the most out of it, and expels it once every 24 hours. Sound familiar? Yup, this robot goes potty. As silly as it sounds, the potential impact of self-sustaining robots is incredible for obvious reasons - this shuffling, stuttering robo-stomach is actually a pretty important development.
Video of it in action:
Video of "it" in "action":
"Robot of the the Week" is brought to you by Walker Robotics.
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