Blog @ NanoVic - Nanotechnology Blog

The line between artificial and biological life is becoming increasingly blurry,and the latest development is robots that feed themselves. It’s not a new concept to create robots which don’t need ‘refueling’ so to speak, of course you can whack a few solar cells on to create a renewable fuel source. But the Bristol Robotics Laboratory has actually created the worlds first robot that eats unrefined biological material to produce it’s energy.

So what does a robot eat when it’s hungry? EcoBotII eats flies, generating electricity from a microbial fuel cell which digests the chitin in the exoskeleton of the insects. And although the power output is tiny, EcoBotII won’t break any speed records at a measly 13 cm per hour, it is able to be fuelled for 2 weeks on just 8 flies! At this stage EcoBotII has been ‘fed’ flies, but next generation EcoBotIII will not only attract it’s own food with a trap system using attractant pheremones, it will be the first complete artificial digestive system, able to excrete it’s own waste.

Why make a robot that can eat insects? One group that has been very interested, says scientist Allan Winfield, is organic farmers, who would be able to control pests without using pesticides, with the added bonus that the robots are able to ‘poo’ out nutrient rich fertiliser!