|
Food-eating robot is
born
Meet “Chew Chew the
Gastrobot”
-
Chew Chew, a
gastrobot,
runs on a microbial fuel cell, which breaks down food with bacteria
and converts it into electrical energy.
REUTERS
LONDON,
Man really is in
danger of being swallowed up by technology after U.S. scientists
announced they had designed a robot that runs on
food.
Dubbed Chew Chew the “gastrobot,” a 12-wheeled train-like robot runs
on a microbial fuel cell, which breaks down food with bacteria and
converts it into electrical energy, according to a report in New Scientist
magazine.
The cell works by producing
enzymes that break down carbohydrates, releasing energy, inventor Stuart
Wilkinson of the University of South Florida in Tampa told the
magazine.
“The ideal fuel in terms of energy
gain, is meat. Vegetation is not nearly as nutritious,” Wilkinson said.
“Changing food into electricity isn’t unique. What I’ve done is to make it
small enough to fit in a robot.
Chew Chew
eats sugar cubes but early applications for gastrobots may include
lawnmowers which eat grass clippings, New Scientist said.
But Chew Chew’s diet is refined compared to that of a gastrobot
being developed at the University of the West of England — it eats
slugs.
Wilkinson is jokingly aware of the
dangers of giving gastrobots a taste for meat: “Otherwise they’ll notice
there’s an awful lot of humans running about and try to eat
them.”
|
