Fly Powered Robot!

[Tuckerfan]

It’s got the goofy name of Ecobot II, but it really runs on flies!

The next stage, involves the construction of a robot, which is called EcoBot II that also performs phototaxis but at the same time reports the temperature remotely. It is powered by Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), containing a flora of microorganisms originating from sludge and fed with dead flies or rotten fruit.

In contrast with its predecessor, EcoBot I, which was the first robot in the world to acquire all its onboard power from MFCs (i.e. it carried no batteries) utilising refined fuels (sugar), EcoBot II utilises raw foodstuffs such as flies or rotten apples. It is also the first in the world to employ the gas (O2) diffusion cathode, which in terms of autonomy is extremely important. What is novel about our work is the integration of MFCs fed with raw substrate and utilising O2 from air with a small scale robot.

I note that it’s a British lab that’s developed this thing. These guys come from the land which gave us the likes of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, and Dave Allen and the best they could come up with Ecobot II??? Yeesh, ya think they could have at least called it the “Spiderbot.” That would have been an improvement.

[Derleth]

Assuming this isn’t a hoax, it’s extremely interesting. I doubt it’s capable of actually catching a fly, however: I don’t think any robot is that fast and aware of its surroundings.

[Tuckerfan]

@Derleth

Assuming this isn’t a hoax, it’s extremely interesting. I doubt it’s capable of actually catching a fly, however: I don’t think any robot is that fast and aware of its surroundings.

Hey, I got the link in an email from NASA! How could it be a hoax?