What is "Eco Bot" which can send urine with artificial heart and make it power?

Generate your own power from waste "EcobotAs part of our research, a mechanism to operate a robot by using an artificial heart to convert urine to power has been developed in the UKUniversity of BristolWhenUniversity of Western EnglandIt was developed by.

Pumping Fuel in Ecobot
http://www.brl.ac.uk/brlnews/pumpingfuelinecobot.aspx


Both universities developed a mechanism to change the urine to the power of the robot by using the shape memory alloy and adopting the pump mechanism of the human heart. We use artificial heart to circulate human urine as if it were blood. This is a robot that generates your own power from waste "Ecobot"As part of the research, in the past 10 years both universities have developed robots that eat fresh flies and rotten applesEcoBot-IIWe are developing 4 bodies in total. EcoBot-II built microbial fuel cell and decomposed food with microorganisms to generate energy, but the energy level was low and the movement of the robot was slow.

The following are EcoBot-II developed in 2004.


EcoBot-III made in 2010 is like this.


As Ecotbot does not require much human hands for maintenance, it will be developed as a monitoring robot in areas where pollution is severe or dangerous creatures exist in the future. Dr. Peter Walters, leader of the research team, said, "Urine to be fuel in urban areas can be collected from the public toilet, and in the countryside, wastewater from farmland can be used."

When the shape memory alloy used for the artificial heart compresses the central part when it is heated with electric current, it sends urine with enough strength to circulate it to the fuel cell, and when the current runs out, the artificial heart is cooled and the original The mechanism that the discharge of liquid is stopped by returning to shape. At this time the artificial heart is relaxed and the fluid starts to flow toward the next cycle. It also charged the capacitor with 24 microbial fuel cells and the artificial heart was moved by that energy. "The conventional motor / pump is a mechanically complicated mechanism, the artificial heart that the shape memory alloy moves the pump is a simpler mechanism," Dr. Walters says. There was a problem that it was easy for a motor / pump to break down, but the artificial heart is hard to break due to simplicity.


In addition, research is also being conducted to make urine power of mobile phones with fuel cells using the same microorganism as Ecobot.

Mobile phone runs on urine power
http://www.brl.ac.uk/brlnews/urinepower.aspx


In the future, the research group will focus on improving the efficiency of the artificial heart, and will focus on the next-generation robot using microbial fuel cells as an artificial It is a policy to continue studying how the heart can be taken.