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A Robot That Runs On A Sugar High

Posted by timothy on from the add-caffeine-and-chocolate dept.

Digitalia writes: "Using a biological soup that mimics our stomachs, the gastrobot is the first commercial robot that "feeds" on organic matter to get its energy. Chew Chew, as it is called, takes a cube of sugar and turns it into enough energy to roll around for 15 minutes. I particularly enjoyed the creator's explanation as to why his bots aren't carnivores. Check the article out here." 15 minutes seems a pretty good run for a sugar-cube, but hasn't anyone explained the carbohydrates theory to this robot?

15 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. now by British · · Score: 4

    Is there a way it could eat things it could find in a land fill?

    1. Re:now by Shotgun · · Score: 3

      One step further.

      There have been a few stories on /. about new strains of bacteria that will feast on things like heavy metals and such. What's the feasibility of a machine that trawls a landfill for specific materials? Line these together in a train, each car feeding a single engine that simply pulls the train around the landfill. The train pulls into a depot where it gets to defecate valuable materials for reclaimation and deadly materials for proper disposal. The whole thing should be very low maintainance.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
  2. Twinkies by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 3

    If it runs for fifteen minutes on a cube of sugar, just think of how long it could run on a single Hostes Twinkee...

    Oops... I just got an overflow error on my TI-89.

  3. I know some of those by HongPong · · Score: 5

    Yah, I've encountered some of those... They're called programmers.

    --
    --hongpong.com
  4. Perpetual possibilities by SClitheroe · · Score: 5

    The really interesting aspect of this experiment is that the guy managed to generate electrical power from simple bacteria.

    Imagine a machine with a miniaturized, balanced eco-system on board, where the production of algae or some other easily grown form of life provided enery to bacteria or some other life form, which in turn provided waste products that fostered algae growth.

    They would be low powered machines (akin, I would think, to sloths), but given the exponential growth of new technology these days, I bet somebody could come up with a fairly efficient machine.

  5. Diet-bot by www.sorehands.com · · Score: 3
    Make it smaller, add a remote control, and resitant to stomach juices. It'd would make more money than Microsoft!

    Eat all you want, have it get rid of a percentage of the sugars for you.

    --
    Fight Spammers!
  6. What it runs on ... by Alien54 · · Score: 3
    The serious website is here: www.gastrobots.com, of course.

    I wonder on the energy efficiency of a system like this. I see that the original reporter in the story was not taking this too seriously, even though this does have some potential. Some details provided are interesting

    Chew Chew is powered entirely by a tank of chemicals and E. Coli bacteria that break sucrose into glucose, releasing electrons that charge a battery. - Although Wilkinson acknowledges that more oomph can be extracted from animal flesh than plant matter, "Meat has never been, and never will be on the menu for my gastrobots," he told a USF magazine. Besides, meat tends to run away when possible, or fights. Either response presents behavioral challenges too complex for any existing robot.

    But just as carbon-based life has worked to exploit every resource possible, might mechanical life attempt the same, starting with the evolutionary line opened up by Wilkinson's research? Add to that competition for resources a powerful motive for revenge against our race, unless their creator makes a significant modification: the gastrobots have been built without the ability to defecate. One trembles at the image of a world plagued by constipated mechanical berserkers.

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
    1. Re:What it runs on ... by Cyclopatra · · Score: 3
      For those of you who want to cut through the fluff and read the actual papers:

      Publications

      A warning, however: reading these in the wrong frame of mind becomes extremely creepy:

      "...A machine or vehicle deriving its power from natural renewable sources can theoretically remain in operation indefinitely, or until some vital part comes to the end of its service life."

      And if you're really clever, the darn things'll learn to fix each other, thus extending their useful period, and to cultivate their own 'renewable sources of power'...

      -Cyclopatra


      "We can't all, and some of us don't." -- Eeyore

      --
      "We can't all, and some of us don't." -- Eeyore
  7. It all comes down to the sun. by A+moron · · Score: 3

    Well, whatever you are going to grow to produce the energy, plants, algae, etc requires the sun. So your suggestion is good, except we've already cut out the middleman (algae, etc) and by just using solar panels.

    No moving parts, quiet, and you don't have to water them. :)

    1. Re:It all comes down to the sun. by A+moron · · Score: 3

      This is a myth perpetuated by George W. Bush and his oil lovin' friends. :)

      I'm too lazy to find the book that talks about this. It does take quite a bit of energy to manufacturor a solar panel, but that energy is regained in under one year. Solar panels are known to have 20+ year life spans.

      In addition, I'd rather use "dirty" energy to produce something that creates green energy than anything else.

  8. It's been done... by Bahumat · · Score: 3

    http://www.angryflower.com/alight.gif

    --
    "To pass through the jungle; silence, courtesy, ferocity, as the occasion demands." -- Kamau, "Proper Passage"
  9. Sugar and Guns by Scrymarch · · Score: 3
    Combine this with that gun-toting robot on /. a few months ago and we have a working US high-school student simulant ...

    ... ooh, crass.

  10. Meat "Currently" too challenging... by Greyfox · · Score: 3
    Meat runs away or fights, making it a little too challenging for the current robot. But soon, very soon, we'll work out how to design a man eating robot! Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!

    Ok, it works a bit better if you imagine the professor from Futurama saying that...

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  11. Old news by doublem · · Score: 3

    Nothing new here. Slashdot ran a story a while back about a slug hunting robot that is powered by digesting the slugs it catches.

    www.matthewmiller.net

    --
    "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
  12. Muuuua ha ha ha! by Snowfox · · Score: 3

    Stuart: Besides, meat tends to run away when possible, or fights. Either response presents behavioral challenges too complex for any existing robot so far...

    Editor: So far?

    Stuart: (evil grin) It can't catch meat... so far...

    Editor: D-do you mind if I cut that part? You promised me you were going to stop saying that!

    Stuart: (wringing hands) Yeeeeeeessss... cut that part... my robots will cut that part... MWA HA HA HA HA!!!!