A robot that eats pollution
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0:01 - 0:02Hi, I'm an engineer
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0:02 - 0:04and I make robots.
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0:04 - 0:08Now, of course you all know
what a robot is, right? -
0:08 - 0:10If you don't, you'd probably go to Google,
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0:10 - 0:12and you'd ask Google what a robot is.
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0:12 - 0:13So let's do that.
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0:14 - 0:16We'll go to Google
and this is what we get. -
0:16 - 0:20Now, you can see here there are
lots of different types of robots, -
0:20 - 0:23but they're predominantly
humanoid in structure. -
0:23 - 0:25And they look pretty conventional
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0:25 - 0:27because they've got plastic,
they've got metal, -
0:28 - 0:30they've got motors and gears and so on.
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0:30 - 0:31Some of them look quite friendly,
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0:31 - 0:34and you could go up
and you could hug them. -
0:34 - 0:35Some of them not so friendly,
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0:35 - 0:37they look like they're
straight out of "Terminator," -
0:37 - 0:40in fact they may well be
straight out of "Terminator." -
0:40 - 0:43You can do lots of really cool
things with these robots -- -
0:43 - 0:44you can do really exciting stuff.
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0:44 - 0:47But I'd like to look
at different kinds of robots -- -
0:47 - 0:49I want to make different kinds of robots.
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0:49 - 0:53And I take inspiration
from the things that don't look like us, -
0:53 - 0:54but look like these.
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0:55 - 0:57So these are natural biological organisms
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0:57 - 1:00and they do some
really cool things that we can't, -
1:00 - 1:02and current robots can't either.
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1:02 - 1:06They do all sorts great things
like moving around on the the floor; -
1:06 - 1:08they go into our gardens
and they eat our crops; -
1:08 - 1:09they climb trees;
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1:09 - 1:11they go in water, they come out of water;
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1:11 - 1:14they trap insects and digest them.
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1:14 - 1:16So they do really interesting things.
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1:16 - 1:19They live, they breathe, they die,
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1:19 - 1:21they eat things from the environment.
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1:21 - 1:24Our current robots don't really do that.
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1:24 - 1:25Now, wouldn't it be great
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1:25 - 1:29if you could use some of those
characteristics in future robots -
1:29 - 1:31so that you could solve
some really interesting problems? -
1:31 - 1:34I'm going to look at a couple of problems
now in the environment -
1:34 - 1:37where we can use
the skills and the technologies -
1:37 - 1:39derived from these animals
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1:39 - 1:41and from the plants,
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1:41 - 1:43and we can use them
to solve those problems. -
1:43 - 1:45Let's have a look
at two environmental problems. -
1:46 - 1:47They're both of our making --
-
1:47 - 1:50this is man interacting
with the environment -
1:50 - 1:52and doing some rather unpleasant things.
-
1:52 - 1:56The first one is to do
with the pressure of population. -
1:56 - 1:59Such is the pressure
of population around the world -
1:59 - 2:03that agriculture and farming is required
to produce more and more crops. -
2:03 - 2:04Now, to do that,
-
2:04 - 2:07farmers put more and more
chemicals onto the land. -
2:07 - 2:10They put on fertilizers,
nitrates, pesticides -- -
2:10 - 2:13all sorts of things
that encourage the growth of the crops, -
2:13 - 2:15but there are some negative impacts.
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2:15 - 2:19One of the negative impacts is
if you put lots of fertilizer on the land, -
2:19 - 2:21not all of it goes into the crops.
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2:21 - 2:24Lots of it stays in the soil,
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2:24 - 2:25and then when it rains,
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2:25 - 2:28these chemicals go into the water table.
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2:28 - 2:29And in the water table,
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2:29 - 2:33then they go into streams,
into lakes, into rivers -
2:33 - 2:34and into the sea.
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2:34 - 2:37Now, if you put all
of these chemicals, these nitrates, -
2:37 - 2:39into those kinds of environments,
-
2:39 - 2:42there are organisms in those environments
that will be affected by that -- -
2:42 - 2:44algae, for example.
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2:44 - 2:47Algae loves nitrates, it loves fertilizer,
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2:47 - 2:49so it will take in all these chemicals,
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2:49 - 2:52and if the conditions are right,
it will mass produce. -
2:52 - 2:54It will produce masses
and masses of new algae. -
2:54 - 2:56That's called a bloom.
-
2:56 - 2:59The trouble is that
when algae reproduces like this, -
2:59 - 3:01it starves the water of oxygen.
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3:01 - 3:03As soon as you do that,
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3:03 - 3:06the other organisms
in the water can't survive. -
3:06 - 3:08So, what do we do?
-
3:08 - 3:12We try to produce a robot
that will eat the algae, -
3:12 - 3:14consume it and make it safe.
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3:14 - 3:15So that's the first problem.
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3:16 - 3:18The second problem is also of our making,
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3:18 - 3:20and it's to do with oil pollution.
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3:21 - 3:25Now, oil comes out
of the engines that we use, -
3:25 - 3:26the boats that we use.
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3:26 - 3:29Sometimes tankers
flush their oil tanks into the sea, -
3:29 - 3:31so oil is released into the sea that way.
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3:31 - 3:34Wouldn't it be nice
if we could treat that in some way -
3:34 - 3:39using robots that could eat the pollution
the oil fields have produced? -
3:39 - 3:41So that's what we do.
-
3:41 - 3:43We make robots that will eat pollution.
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3:44 - 3:45To actually make the robot,
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3:45 - 3:47we take inspiration from two organisms.
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3:48 - 3:50On the right there
you see the basking shark. -
3:50 - 3:53The basking shark is a massive shark.
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3:53 - 3:56It's noncarnivorous,
so you can swim with it, -
3:56 - 3:57as you can see.
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3:57 - 3:59And the basking shark opens its mouth,
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3:59 - 4:02and it swims through the water,
collecting plankton. -
4:03 - 4:05As it does that, it digests the food,
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4:05 - 4:09and then it uses that energy
in its body to keep moving. -
4:09 - 4:11So, could we make a robot like that --
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4:11 - 4:14like the basking shark
that chugs through the water -
4:14 - 4:15and eats up pollution?
-
4:16 - 4:18Well, let's see if we can do that.
-
4:18 - 4:21But also, we take the inspiration
from other organisms. -
4:21 - 4:23I've got a picture here
of a water boatman, -
4:23 - 4:25and the water boatman is really cute.
-
4:25 - 4:26When it's swimming in the water,
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4:27 - 4:29it uses its paddle-like legs
to push itself forward. -
4:30 - 4:32So we take those two organisms
-
4:32 - 4:35and we combine them together
to make a new kind of robot. -
4:35 - 4:38In fact, because we're using
the water boatman as inspiration, -
4:39 - 4:41and our robot sits on top of the water,
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4:41 - 4:43and it rows,
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4:43 - 4:45we call it the "Row-bot."
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4:45 - 4:49So a Row-bot is a robot that rows.
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4:49 - 4:51OK. So what does it look like?
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4:51 - 4:53Here's some pictures of the Row-bot,
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4:53 - 4:54and you'll see,
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4:54 - 4:58it doesn't look anything like the robots
we saw right at the beginning. -
4:58 - 5:00Google is wrong;
robots don't look like that, -
5:00 - 5:01they look like this.
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5:01 - 5:03So I've got the Row-bot here.
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5:03 - 5:04I'll just hold it up for you.
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5:04 - 5:06It gives you a sense of the scale,
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5:06 - 5:08and it doesn't look
anything like the others. -
5:08 - 5:10OK, so it's made out of plastic,
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5:10 - 5:12and we'll have a look now
at the components -
5:12 - 5:13that make up the Row-bot --
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5:13 - 5:15what makes it really special.
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5:16 - 5:19The Row-bot is made up of three parts,
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5:19 - 5:22and those three parts are really
like the parts of any organism. -
5:22 - 5:24It's got a brain,
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5:24 - 5:25it's got a body
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5:25 - 5:27and it's got a stomach.
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5:27 - 5:30It needs the stomach to create the energy.
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5:30 - 5:32Any Row-bot will have
those three components, -
5:32 - 5:34and any organism
will have those three components, -
5:34 - 5:36so let's go through them one at a time.
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5:36 - 5:38It has a body,
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5:38 - 5:39and its body is made out of plastic,
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5:39 - 5:42and it sits on top of the water.
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5:42 - 5:45And it's got flippers on the side here --
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5:45 - 5:46paddles that help it move,
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5:46 - 5:47just like the water boatman.
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5:48 - 5:50It's got a plastic body,
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5:50 - 5:52but it's got a soft rubber mouth here,
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5:52 - 5:54and a mouth here --
it's got two mouths. -
5:54 - 5:56Why does it have two mouths?
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5:56 - 5:58One is to let the food go in
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5:58 - 6:00and the other is to let the food go out.
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6:00 - 6:03So you can see really
it's got a mouth and a derriere, -
6:03 - 6:04or a --
-
6:04 - 6:05(Laughter)
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6:05 - 6:07something where the stuff comes out,
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6:07 - 6:09which is just like a real organism.
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6:09 - 6:12So it's starting to look
like that basking shark. -
6:12 - 6:13So that's the body.
-
6:13 - 6:16The second component might be the stomach.
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6:16 - 6:20We need to get the energy into the robot
and we need to treat the pollution, -
6:20 - 6:22so the pollution goes in,
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6:22 - 6:23and it will do something.
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6:23 - 6:27It's got a cell in the middle here
called a microbial fuel cell. -
6:27 - 6:30I'll put this down,
and I'll lift up the fuel cell. -
6:30 - 6:32Here. So instead of having batteries,
-
6:32 - 6:34instead of having
a conventional power system, -
6:34 - 6:36it's got one of these.
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6:36 - 6:37This is its stomach.
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6:37 - 6:38And it really is a stomach
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6:38 - 6:42because you can put energy in this side
in the form of pollution, -
6:42 - 6:43and it creates electricity.
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6:43 - 6:44So what is it?
-
6:44 - 6:46It's called a microbial fuel cell.
-
6:46 - 6:48It's a little bit
like a chemical fuel cell, -
6:48 - 6:50which you might have
come across in school, -
6:50 - 6:52or you might've seen in the news.
-
6:52 - 6:54Chemical fuel cells
take hydrogen and oxygen, -
6:54 - 6:57and they can combine them together
and you get electricity. -
6:57 - 7:00That's well-established technology;
it was in the Apollo space missions. -
7:00 - 7:02That's from 40, 50 years ago.
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7:02 - 7:04This is slightly newer.
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7:04 - 7:05This is a microbial fuel cell.
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7:05 - 7:06It's the same principle:
-
7:06 - 7:08it's got oxygen on one side,
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7:08 - 7:10but instead of having
hydrogen on the other, -
7:10 - 7:11it's got some soup,
-
7:11 - 7:14and inside that soup
there are living microbes. -
7:14 - 7:17Now, if you take some organic material --
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7:17 - 7:19could be some waste products, some food,
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7:19 - 7:21maybe a bit of your sandwich --
-
7:21 - 7:24you put it in there,
the microbes will eat that food, -
7:24 - 7:26and they will turn it into electricity.
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7:26 - 7:30Not only that, but if you select
the right kind of microbes, -
7:30 - 7:34you can use the microbial fuel cell
to treat some of the pollution. -
7:34 - 7:36If you choose the right microbes,
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7:36 - 7:39the microbes will eat the algae.
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7:39 - 7:41If you use other kinds of microbes,
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7:41 - 7:45they will eat petroleum
spirits and crude oil. -
7:45 - 7:48So you can see
how this stomach could be used -
7:48 - 7:51to not only treat the pollution
-
7:51 - 7:54but also to generate electricity
from the pollution. -
7:54 - 7:57So the robot will move
through the environment, -
7:57 - 7:59taking food into its stomach,
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7:59 - 8:02digest the food, create electricity,
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8:02 - 8:04use that electricity
to move through the environment -
8:04 - 8:06and keep doing this.
-
8:06 - 8:09OK, so let's see what happens
when we run the Row-bot -- -
8:09 - 8:11when it does some rowing.
-
8:11 - 8:12Here we've got a couple of videos,
-
8:12 - 8:15the first thing you'll see --
hopefully you can see here -
8:15 - 8:16is the mouth open.
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8:16 - 8:19The front mouth and the bottom mouth open,
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8:19 - 8:21and it will stay opened enough,
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8:21 - 8:23then the robot will start to row forward.
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8:23 - 8:24It moves through the water
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8:24 - 8:27so that food goes in
as the waste products go out. -
8:27 - 8:29Once it's moved enough,
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8:29 - 8:31it stops and then it closes the mouth --
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8:32 - 8:34slowly closes the mouths --
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8:34 - 8:36and then it will sit there,
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8:36 - 8:37and it will digest the food.
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8:38 - 8:41Of course these microbial fuel cells,
-
8:41 - 8:42they contain microbes.
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8:42 - 8:44What you really want is lots of energy
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8:44 - 8:46coming out of those microbes
as quickly as possible. -
8:47 - 8:48But we can't force the microbes
-
8:48 - 8:51and they generate a small amount
of electricity per second. -
8:51 - 8:54They generate milliwatts, or microwatts.
-
8:54 - 8:56Let's put that into context.
-
8:56 - 8:58Your mobile phone for example,
-
8:58 - 8:59one of these modern ones,
-
8:59 - 9:01if you use it, it takes about one watt.
-
9:02 - 9:05So that's a thousand or a million times
as much energy that that uses -
9:05 - 9:07compared to the microbial fuel cell.
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9:08 - 9:10How can we cope with that?
-
9:10 - 9:12Well, when the Row-bot
has done its digestion, -
9:12 - 9:14when it's taken the food in,
-
9:14 - 9:17it will sit there and it will wait
until it has consumed all that food. -
9:18 - 9:21That could take some hours,
it could take some days. -
9:21 - 9:24A typical cycle for the Row-bot
looks like this: -
9:24 - 9:26you open your mouth,
-
9:26 - 9:27you move,
-
9:27 - 9:28you close your mouth
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9:28 - 9:30and you sit there for a while waiting.
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9:30 - 9:32Once you digest your food,
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9:32 - 9:34then you can go about
doing the same thing again. -
9:34 - 9:37But you know what, that looks
like a real organism, doesn't it? -
9:37 - 9:39It looks like the kind of thing we do.
-
9:39 - 9:41Saturday night,
we go out, open our mouths, -
9:41 - 9:43fill our stomachs,
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9:43 - 9:46sit in front of the telly and digest.
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9:46 - 9:48When we've had enough,
we do the same thing again. -
9:48 - 9:51OK, if we're lucky with this cycle,
-
9:51 - 9:55at the end of the cycle
we'll have enough energy left over -
9:55 - 9:57for us to be able to do something else.
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9:57 - 9:59We could send a message, for example.
-
9:59 - 10:00We could send a message saying,
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10:00 - 10:03"This is how much pollution
I've eaten recently," -
10:03 - 10:05or, "This is the kind of stuff
that I've encountered," -
10:05 - 10:07or, "This is where I am."
-
10:08 - 10:11That ability to send a message
saying, "This is where I am," -
10:11 - 10:13is really, really important.
-
10:13 - 10:16If you think about the oil slicks
that we saw before, -
10:16 - 10:17or those massive algal blooms,
-
10:17 - 10:20what you really want to do
is put your Row-bot out there, -
10:20 - 10:22and it eats up all of those pollutions,
-
10:22 - 10:24and then you have to go collect them.
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10:24 - 10:25Why?
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10:25 - 10:27Because these Row-bots at the moment,
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10:27 - 10:28this Row-bot I've got here,
-
10:28 - 10:30it contains motors, it contains wires,
-
10:30 - 10:34it contains components
which themselves are not biodegradable. -
10:34 - 10:36Current Row-bots contain
things like toxic batteries. -
10:37 - 10:38You can't leave those in the environment,
-
10:39 - 10:40so you need to track them,
-
10:40 - 10:42and then when they've finished
their job of work, -
10:42 - 10:44you need to collect them.
-
10:44 - 10:46That limits the number
of Row-bots you can use. -
10:46 - 10:47If, on the other hand,
-
10:47 - 10:50you have robot a little bit
like a biological organism, -
10:50 - 10:53when it comes to the end of its life,
-
10:53 - 10:55it dies and it degrades to nothing.
-
10:55 - 10:57So wouldn't it be nice if these robots,
-
10:57 - 11:00instead of being like this,
made out of plastic, -
11:00 - 11:01were made out of other materials,
-
11:01 - 11:03which when you throw them out there,
-
11:03 - 11:04they biodegrade to nothing?
-
11:04 - 11:07That changes the way
in which we use robots. -
11:07 - 11:10Instead of putting 10 or 100
out into the environment, -
11:10 - 11:11having to track them,
-
11:11 - 11:13and then when they die,
-
11:13 - 11:14collect them,
-
11:14 - 11:16you could put a thousand,
-
11:16 - 11:18a million, a billion robots
into the environment. -
11:18 - 11:20Just spread them around.
-
11:20 - 11:24You know that at the end of their lives,
they're going to degrade to nothing. -
11:24 - 11:25You don't need to worry about them.
-
11:26 - 11:28So that changes the way
in which you think about robots -
11:28 - 11:30and the way you deploy them.
-
11:30 - 11:31Then the question is: Can you do this?
-
11:31 - 11:34Well, yes, we have shown
that you can do this. -
11:34 - 11:36You can make robots
which are biodegradable. -
11:36 - 11:39What's really interesting
is you can use household materials -
11:39 - 11:40to make these biodegradable robots.
-
11:40 - 11:43I'll show you some;
you might be surprised. -
11:43 - 11:46You can make a robot out of jelly.
-
11:46 - 11:49Instead of having a motor,
which we have at the moment, -
11:49 - 11:51you can make things
called artificial muscles. -
11:51 - 11:53Artificial muscles are smart materials,
-
11:53 - 11:55you apply electricity to them,
-
11:55 - 11:57and they contract,
or they bend or they twist. -
11:57 - 11:59They look like real muscles.
-
11:59 - 12:02So instead of having a motor,
you have these artificial muscles. -
12:02 - 12:05And you can make
artificial muscles out of jelly. -
12:05 - 12:07If you take some jelly and some salts,
-
12:07 - 12:09and do a bit of jiggery-pokery,
-
12:09 - 12:11you can make an artificial muscle.
-
12:11 - 12:14We've also shown you can make
the microbial fuel cell's stomach -
12:14 - 12:16out of paper.
-
12:16 - 12:19So you could make the whole
robot out of biodegradable materials. -
12:19 - 12:22You throw them out there,
and they degrade to nothing. -
12:24 - 12:25Well, this is really, really exciting.
-
12:25 - 12:29It's going to totally change the way
in which we think about robots, -
12:29 - 12:31but also it allows you
to be really creative -
12:31 - 12:34in the way in which you think
about what you can do with these robots. -
12:34 - 12:36I'll give you an example.
-
12:36 - 12:38If you can use jelly to make a robot --
-
12:38 - 12:40now, we eat jelly, right?
-
12:40 - 12:43So, why not make something like this?
-
12:43 - 12:44A robot gummy bear.
-
12:45 - 12:48Here, I've got some I prepared earlier.
-
12:48 - 12:50There we go. I've got a packet --
-
12:51 - 12:52and I've got a lemon-flavored one.
-
12:54 - 12:56I'll take this gummy bear --
he's not robotic, OK? -
12:56 - 12:58We have to pretend.
-
12:58 - 13:01And what you do with one of these
is you put it in your mouth -- -
13:01 - 13:02the lemon's quite nice.
-
13:03 - 13:06Try not to chew it too much,
it's a robot, it may not like it. -
13:07 - 13:09And then you swallow it.
-
13:09 - 13:11And then it goes into your stomach.
-
13:11 - 13:15And when it's inside your stomach,
it moves, it thinks, it twists, it bends, -
13:15 - 13:16it does something.
-
13:16 - 13:18It could go further down
into your intestines, -
13:18 - 13:20find out whether you've got
some ulcer or cancer, -
13:20 - 13:23maybe do an injection,
something like that. -
13:23 - 13:25You know that once
it's done its job of work, -
13:25 - 13:28it could be consumed by your stomach,
-
13:28 - 13:29or if you don't want that,
-
13:29 - 13:31it could go straight through you,
-
13:31 - 13:32into the toilet,
-
13:32 - 13:34and be degraded safely in the environment.
-
13:35 - 13:38So this changes the way, again,
in which we think about robots. -
13:39 - 13:43So, we started off looking
at robots that would eat pollution, -
13:43 - 13:46and then we're looking
at robots which we can eat. -
13:46 - 13:47I hope this gives you some idea
-
13:47 - 13:50of the kinds of things
we can do with future robots. -
13:52 - 13:53Thank you very much for your attention.
-
13:53 - 13:57(Applause)
- Title:
- A robot that eats pollution
- Speaker:
- Jonathan Rossiter
- Description:
-
Meet the "Row-bot," a robot that cleans up pollution and generates the electricity needed to power itself by swallowing dirty water. Roboticist Jonathan Rossiter explains how this special swimming machine, which uses a microbial fuel cell to neutralize algal blooms and oil slicks, could be a precursor to biodegradable, autonomous pollution-fighting robots.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:10
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz accepted English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution |