0:00:00.720,0:00:02.136
Hi, I'm an engineer

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and I make robots.

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Now, of course you all know[br]what a robot is, right?

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If you don't, you'd probably go to Google,

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and you'd ask Google what a robot is.

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So let's do that.

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We'll go to Google[br]and this is what we get.

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Now, you can see here there are[br]lots of different types of robots,

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but they're predominantly[br]humanoid in structure.

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And they look pretty conventional

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because they've got plastic,[br]they've got metal,

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they've got motors and gears and so on.

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Some of them look quite friendly,

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and you could go up[br]and you could hug them.

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Some of them not so friendly,

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they look like they're[br]straight out of "Terminator,"

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in fact they may well be[br]straight out of "Terminator."

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You can do lots of really cool[br]things with these robots --

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you can do really exciting stuff.

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But I'd like to look[br]at different kinds of robots --

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I want to make different kinds of robots.

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And I take inspiration[br]from the things that don't look like us,

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but look like these.

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So these are natural biological organisms

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and they do some[br]really cool things that we can't,

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and current robots can't either.

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They do all sorts of great things[br]like moving around on the floor;

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they go into our gardens[br]and they eat our crops;

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they climb trees;

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they go in water, they come out of water;

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they trap insects and digest them.

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So they do really interesting things.

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They live, they breathe, they die,

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they eat things from the environment.

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Our current robots don't really do that.

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Now, wouldn't it be great

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if you could use some of those[br]characteristics in future robots

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so that you could solve[br]some really interesting problems?

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I'm going to look at a couple of problems[br]now in the environment

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where we can use[br]the skills and the technologies

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derived from these animals

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and from the plants,

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and we can use them[br]to solve those problems.

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Let's have a look[br]at two environmental problems.

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They're both of our making --

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this is man interacting[br]with the environment

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and doing some rather unpleasant things.

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The first one is to do[br]with the pressure of population.

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Such is the pressure[br]of population around the world

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that agriculture and farming is required[br]to produce more and more crops.

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Now, to do that,

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farmers put more and more[br]chemicals onto the land.

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They put on fertilizers,[br]nitrates, pesticides --

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all sorts of things[br]that encourage the growth of the crops,

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but there are some negative impacts.

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One of the negative impacts is[br]if you put lots of fertilizer on the land,

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not all of it goes into the crops.

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Lots of it stays in the soil,

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and then when it rains,

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these chemicals go into the water table.

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And in the water table,

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then they go into streams,[br]into lakes, into rivers

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and into the sea.

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Now, if you put all[br]of these chemicals, these nitrates,

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into those kinds of environments,

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there are organisms in those environments[br]that will be affected by that --

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algae, for example.

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Algae loves nitrates, it loves fertilizer,

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so it will take in all these chemicals,

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and if the conditions are right,[br]it will mass produce.

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It will produce masses[br]and masses of new algae.

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That's called a bloom.

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The trouble is that[br]when algae reproduces like this,

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it starves the water of oxygen.

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As soon as you do that,

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the other organisms[br]in the water can't survive.

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So, what do we do?

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We try to produce a robot[br]that will eat the algae,

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consume it and make it safe.

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So that's the first problem.

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The second problem is also of our making,

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and it's to do with oil pollution.

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Now, oil comes out[br]of the engines that we use,

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the boats that we use.

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Sometimes tankers[br]flush their oil tanks into the sea,

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so oil is released into the sea that way.

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Wouldn't it be nice[br]if we could treat that in some way

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using robots that could eat the pollution[br]the oil fields have produced?

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So that's what we do.

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We make robots that will eat pollution.

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To actually make the robot,

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we take inspiration from two organisms.

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On the right there[br]you see the basking shark.

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The basking shark is a massive shark.

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It's noncarnivorous,[br]so you can swim with it,

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as you can see.

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And the basking shark opens its mouth,

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and it swims through the water,[br]collecting plankton.

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As it does that, it digests the food,

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and then it uses that energy[br]in its body to keep moving.

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So, could we make a robot like that --

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like the basking shark[br]that chugs through the water

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and eats up pollution?

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Well, let's see if we can do that.

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But also, we take the inspiration[br]from other organisms.

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I've got a picture here[br]of a water boatman,

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and the water boatman is really cute.

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When it's swimming in the water,

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it uses its paddle-like legs[br]to push itself forward.

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So we take those two organisms

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and we combine them together[br]to make a new kind of robot.

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In fact, because we're using[br]the water boatman as inspiration,

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and our robot sits on top of the water,

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and it rows,

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we call it the "Row-bot."

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So a Row-bot is a robot that rows.

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OK. So what does it look like?

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Here's some pictures of the Row-bot,

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and you'll see,

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it doesn't look anything like the robots[br]we saw right at the beginning.

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Google is wrong;[br]robots don't look like that,

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they look like this.

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So I've got the Row-bot here.

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I'll just hold it up for you.

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It gives you a sense of the scale,

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and it doesn't look[br]anything like the others.

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OK, so it's made out of plastic,

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and we'll have a look now[br]at the components

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that make up the Row-bot --

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what makes it really special.

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The Row-bot is made up of three parts,

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and those three parts are really[br]like the parts of any organism.

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It's got a brain,

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it's got a body

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and it's got a stomach.

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It needs the stomach to create the energy.

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Any Row-bot will have[br]those three components,

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and any organism[br]will have those three components,

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so let's go through them one at a time.

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It has a body,

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and its body is made out of plastic,

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and it sits on top of the water.

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And it's got flippers on the side here --

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paddles that help it move,

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just like the water boatman.

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It's got a plastic body,

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but it's got a soft rubber mouth here,

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and a mouth here --[br]it's got two mouths.

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Why does it have two mouths?

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One is to let the food go in

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and the other is to let the food go out.

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So you can see really[br]it's got a mouth and a derriere,

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or a --

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(Laughter)

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something where the stuff comes out,

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which is just like a real organism.

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So it's starting to look[br]like that basking shark.

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So that's the body.

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The second component might be the stomach.

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We need to get the energy into the robot[br]and we need to treat the pollution,

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so the pollution goes in,

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and it will do something.

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It's got a cell in the middle here[br]called a microbial fuel cell.

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I'll put this down,[br]and I'll lift up the fuel cell.

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Here. So instead of having batteries,

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instead of having[br]a conventional power system,

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it's got one of these.

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This is its stomach.

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And it really is a stomach

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because you can put energy in this side[br]in the form of pollution,

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and it creates electricity.

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So what is it?

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It's called a microbial fuel cell.

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It's a little bit[br]like a chemical fuel cell,

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which you might have[br]come across in school,

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or you might've seen in the news.

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Chemical fuel cells[br]take hydrogen and oxygen,

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and they can combine them together[br]and you get electricity.

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That's well-established technology;[br]it was in the Apollo space missions.

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That's from 40, 50 years ago.

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This is slightly newer.

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This is a microbial fuel cell.

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It's the same principle:

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it's got oxygen on one side,

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but instead of having[br]hydrogen on the other,

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it's got some soup,

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and inside that soup[br]there are living microbes.

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Now, if you take some organic material --

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could be some waste products, some food,

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maybe a bit of your sandwich --

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you put it in there,[br]the microbes will eat that food,

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and they will turn it into electricity.

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Not only that, but if you select[br]the right kind of microbes,

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you can use the microbial fuel cell[br]to treat some of the pollution.

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If you choose the right microbes,

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the microbes will eat the algae.

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If you use other kinds of microbes,

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they will eat petroleum[br]spirits and crude oil.

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So you can see[br]how this stomach could be used

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to not only treat the pollution

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but also to generate electricity[br]from the pollution.

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So the robot will move[br]through the environment,

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taking food into its stomach,

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digest the food, create electricity,

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use that electricity[br]to move through the environment

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and keep doing this.

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OK, so let's see what happens[br]when we run the Row-bot --

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when it does some rowing.

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Here we've got a couple of videos,

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the first thing you'll see --[br]hopefully you can see here

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is the mouth open.

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The front mouth and the bottom mouth open,

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and it will stay opened enough,

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then the robot will start to row forward.

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It moves through the water

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so that food goes in[br]as the waste products go out.

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Once it's moved enough,

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it stops and then it closes the mouth --

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slowly closes the mouths --

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and then it will sit there,

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and it will digest the food.

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Of course these microbial fuel cells,

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they contain microbes.

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What you really want is lots of energy

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coming out of those microbes[br]as quickly as possible.

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But we can't force the microbes

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and they generate a small amount[br]of electricity per second.

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They generate milliwatts, or microwatts.

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Let's put that into context.

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Your mobile phone for example,

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one of these modern ones,

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if you use it, it takes about one watt.

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So that's a thousand or a million times[br]as much energy that that uses

0:09:05.360,0:09:07.320
compared to the microbial fuel cell.

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How can we cope with that?

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Well, when the Row-bot[br]has done its digestion,

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when it's taken the food in,

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it will sit there and it will wait[br]until it has consumed all that food.

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That could take some hours,[br]it could take some days.

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A typical cycle for the Row-bot[br]looks like this:

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you open your mouth,

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you move,

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you close your mouth

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and you sit there for a while waiting.

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Once you digest your food,

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then you can go about[br]doing the same thing again.

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But you know what, that looks[br]like a real organism, doesn't it?

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It looks like the kind of thing we do.

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Saturday night,[br]we go out, open our mouths,

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fill our stomachs,

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sit in front of the telly and digest.

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When we've had enough,[br]we do the same thing again.

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OK, if we're lucky with this cycle,

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at the end of the cycle[br]we'll have enough energy left over

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for us to be able to do something else.

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We could send a message, for example.

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We could send a message saying,

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"This is how much pollution[br]I've eaten recently,"

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or, "This is the kind of stuff[br]that I've encountered,"

0:10:05.440,0:10:07.120
or, "This is where I am."

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That ability to send a message[br]saying, "This is where I am,"

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is really, really important.

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If you think about the oil slicks[br]that we saw before,

0:10:15.560,0:10:17.016
or those massive algal blooms,

0:10:17.040,0:10:19.736
what you really want to do[br]is put your Row-bot out there,

0:10:19.760,0:10:21.736
and it eats up all of those pollutions,

0:10:21.760,0:10:23.936
and then you have to go collect them.

0:10:23.960,0:10:25.176
Why?

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Because these Row-bots at the moment,

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this Row-bot I've got here,

0:10:28.400,0:10:30.256
it contains motors, it contains wires,

0:10:30.280,0:10:33.736
it contains components[br]which themselves are not biodegradable.

0:10:33.760,0:10:36.496
Current Row-bots contain[br]things like toxic batteries.

0:10:36.520,0:10:38.496
You can't leave those in the environment,

0:10:38.520,0:10:40.016
so you need to track them,

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and then when they've finished[br]their job of work,

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you need to collect them.

0:10:43.680,0:10:46.016
That limits the number[br]of Row-bots you can use.

0:10:46.040,0:10:47.296
If, on the other hand,

0:10:47.320,0:10:50.456
you have robot a little bit[br]like a biological organism,

0:10:50.480,0:10:52.576
when it comes to the end of its life,

0:10:52.600,0:10:55.056
it dies and it degrades to nothing.

0:10:55.080,0:10:57.416
So wouldn't it be nice if these robots,

0:10:57.440,0:10:59.679
instead of being like this,[br]made out of plastic,

0:10:59.703,0:11:01.296
were made out of other materials,

0:11:01.320,0:11:03.056
which when you throw them out there,

0:11:03.080,0:11:04.416
they biodegrade to nothing?

0:11:04.440,0:11:06.536
That changes the way[br]in which we use robots.

0:11:06.560,0:11:09.936
Instead of putting 10 or 100[br]out into the environment,

0:11:09.960,0:11:11.216
having to track them,

0:11:11.240,0:11:12.576
and then when they die,

0:11:12.600,0:11:13.816
collect them,

0:11:13.840,0:11:15.536
you could put a thousand,

0:11:15.560,0:11:18.296
a million, a billion robots[br]into the environment.

0:11:18.320,0:11:20.136
Just spread them around.

0:11:20.160,0:11:23.776
You know that at the end of their lives,[br]they're going to degrade to nothing.

0:11:23.800,0:11:25.496
You don't need to worry about them.

0:11:25.520,0:11:28.136
So that changes the way[br]in which you think about robots

0:11:28.160,0:11:29.536
and the way you deploy them.

0:11:29.560,0:11:31.416
Then the question is: Can you do this?

0:11:31.440,0:11:33.616
Well, yes, we have shown[br]that you can do this.

0:11:33.640,0:11:35.736
You can make robots[br]which are biodegradable.

0:11:35.760,0:11:38.616
What's really interesting[br]is you can use household materials

0:11:38.640,0:11:40.336
to make these biodegradable robots.

0:11:40.360,0:11:42.936
I'll show you some;[br]you might be surprised.

0:11:42.960,0:11:45.856
You can make a robot out of jelly.

0:11:45.880,0:11:48.656
Instead of having a motor,[br]which we have at the moment,

0:11:48.680,0:11:51.136
you can make things[br]called artificial muscles.

0:11:51.160,0:11:53.456
Artificial muscles are smart materials,

0:11:53.480,0:11:54.936
you apply electricity to them,

0:11:54.960,0:11:57.136
and they contract,[br]or they bend or they twist.

0:11:57.160,0:11:59.376
They look like real muscles.

0:11:59.400,0:12:02.400
So instead of having a motor,[br]you have these artificial muscles.

0:12:02.424,0:12:05.256
And you can make[br]artificial muscles out of jelly.

0:12:05.280,0:12:07.216
If you take some jelly and some salts,

0:12:07.240,0:12:08.816
and do a bit of jiggery-pokery,

0:12:08.840,0:12:10.616
you can make an artificial muscle.

0:12:10.640,0:12:14.216
We've also shown you can make[br]the microbial fuel cell's stomach

0:12:14.240,0:12:15.656
out of paper.

0:12:15.680,0:12:19.160
So you could make the whole[br]robot out of biodegradable materials.

0:12:19.480,0:12:22.360
You throw them out there,[br]and they degrade to nothing.

0:12:23.600,0:12:25.456
Well, this is really, really exciting.

0:12:25.480,0:12:28.671
It's going to totally change the way[br]in which we think about robots,

0:12:28.695,0:12:30.936
but also it allows you[br]to be really creative

0:12:30.960,0:12:34.296
in the way in which you think[br]about what you can do with these robots.

0:12:34.320,0:12:35.576
I'll give you an example.

0:12:35.600,0:12:38.176
If you can use jelly to make a robot --

0:12:38.200,0:12:40.096
now, we eat jelly, right?

0:12:40.120,0:12:42.616
So, why not make something like this?

0:12:42.640,0:12:44.040
A robot gummy bear.

0:12:45.120,0:12:47.896
Here, I've got some I prepared earlier.

0:12:47.920,0:12:49.520
There we go. I've got a packet --

0:12:50.560,0:12:52.440
and I've got a lemon-flavored one.

0:12:53.600,0:12:56.336
I'll take this gummy bear --[br]he's not robotic, OK?

0:12:56.360,0:12:57.576
We have to pretend.

0:12:57.600,0:13:00.616
And what you do with one of these[br]is you put it in your mouth --

0:13:00.640,0:13:01.880
the lemon's quite nice.

0:13:02.720,0:13:05.625
Try not to chew it too much,[br]it's a robot, it may not like it.

0:13:06.840,0:13:09.056
And then you swallow it.

0:13:09.080,0:13:10.776
And then it goes into your stomach.

0:13:10.800,0:13:14.616
And when it's inside your stomach,[br]it moves, it thinks, it twists, it bends,

0:13:14.640,0:13:15.856
it does something.

0:13:15.880,0:13:18.056
It could go further down[br]into your intestines,

0:13:18.080,0:13:20.416
find out whether you've got[br]some ulcer or cancer,

0:13:20.440,0:13:22.536
maybe do an injection,[br]something like that.

0:13:22.560,0:13:25.416
You know that once[br]it's done its job of work,

0:13:25.440,0:13:27.656
it could be consumed by your stomach,

0:13:27.680,0:13:29.376
or if you don't want that,

0:13:29.400,0:13:31.016
it could go straight through you,

0:13:31.040,0:13:32.256
into the toilet,

0:13:32.280,0:13:34.496
and be degraded safely in the environment.

0:13:34.520,0:13:37.760
So this changes the way, again,[br]in which we think about robots.

0:13:38.720,0:13:43.016
So, we started off looking[br]at robots that would eat pollution,

0:13:43.040,0:13:45.696
and then we're looking[br]at robots which we can eat.

0:13:45.720,0:13:47.376
I hope this gives you some idea

0:13:47.400,0:13:49.840
of the kinds of things[br]we can do with future robots.

0:13:51.560,0:13:53.456
Thank you very much for your attention.

0:13:53.480,0:13:56.963
(Applause)