ETYour Pee Could Power Future Robots

Researchers have found a way to turn urine into electric power that could drive a robot.

There‘s a new use for arTIficial hearts， and it involves a more taboo bodily fluid than blood.

A device that mimics the squeezing acTIon of the human heart has been used to pump urine into a microbial fuel cell， which could power robots that convert the waste into electricity.

“In the future， we hope the robots might be used in city environments for remote sensing，” where they could help to monitor polluTIon， said study researcher Peter Walters， an industrial designer at the University of the West of England. “It could refuel from public lavatories， or urinals， ” Walters said.

Walters and colleagues at the University of Bristol have created four generaTIons of these so-called EcoBots over the past decade. Previous versions of the robots ran off energy from rotten produce， dead flies， wastewater and sludge. ［Super-Intelligent Machines： 7 Robotic Futures］

Each is powered by a microbial fuel cell， containing live microorganisms like those found in the human gut or sewage treatment plants. The microbes digest the waste （or urine） and produce electrons， which can be harvested to produce electrical current， Walters said.

The researchers have already proved the microbial fuel cells can use urine power to charge a mobile phone.

Now， the team has developed a device， made of artificial muscles， that delivers real human urine to the robot’s microbial power stations. The pump is constructed from smart materials， called shape memory alloys， which remember their shape after being deformed.

Heating the artificial muscles with an electric current causes them to compress the soft center of the pump， forcing urine through an outlet that pumps it up to the height of the robot‘s fuel cells. Removing the heat allows the muscles to revert to their original shape， allowing more fluid to enter the pump — much as a heart relaxes to suck in more blood.

Twenty-four of these fuel cells stacked together were able to produce enough electricity to charge a capacitor， which was used to trigger contractions of the artificial heart pump， the researchers report today （Nov. 8） in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

Whereas conventional motor-powered pumps tend to get clogged， the artificial muscle pump has larger internal orifices， Walters said.

While the new pump does produce more electricity than it consumes （since some of the electricity comes from urine that’s converted to electrons）， it‘s still not extremely efficient. The researchers hope to improve the pump’s efficiency for use in future generations of the EcoBot.

自動(dòng)翻譯僅供參考

小便將來能為機(jī)器人供電

Your小便能電力未來Robots

的研究人員已經(jīng)找到一種方法把尿成電能，可以驅(qū)動(dòng)機(jī)器人。

有人造心臟的新用途，它涉及比血液更忌諱體液。

模仿人類心臟的擠壓動(dòng)作的設(shè)備已被用于抽尿成微生物燃料電池，它可以提供動(dòng)力的機(jī)器人，可將廢物轉(zhuǎn)化為電能。

在未來，我們希望機(jī)器人可以在城市環(huán)境遙感，使用在那里他們可以幫助監(jiān)測(cè)污染，該研究的研究人員彼得·沃爾特斯，工業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)師，在英格蘭西部大學(xué)。它可以加油的公共廁所，或尿廁，沃爾特斯說。

每一個(gè)都是由微生物燃料電池供電的，含有像人類腸道或污水處理廠中發(fā)現(xiàn)的活微生物。沃爾特斯說，微生物消化廢物（或尿液）并產(chǎn)生電子，這些電子可以被收集以產(chǎn)生電流。研究人員已經(jīng)證明了微生物燃料電池可使用尿功率到移動(dòng)電話充電。

現(xiàn)在，該小組已開發(fā)出一種裝置，制成人造肌肉，能夠提供真正的人體尿液對(duì)機(jī)器人的微生物發(fā)電站。該泵從智能材料構(gòu)造，被稱為形狀記憶合金，在變形之后記住它們的形狀。

加熱該人造肌肉與電流使它們壓縮泵的軟中心，迫使尿通過泵它的出口到機(jī)器人的燃料電池的高度。除去熱使?。?？肉恢復(fù)到原來的形狀，從而使更多的流體進(jìn)入泵就像一個(gè)心臟放松在更多的血液吸。

二十四這些燃料電池堆疊在一起的能夠產(chǎn)生足夠的電力的電容器，將其用于觸發(fā)人工心臟泵的收縮充電，研究人員報(bào)告今日（ 11月8日）在雜志Bioinspiration和仿生學(xué)。

鑒于傳統(tǒng)的電機(jī)驅(qū)動(dòng)的泵往往堵塞，人造肌肉泵具有較大的內(nèi)孔，沃爾特斯說。

雖然新的水泵確實(shí)能產(chǎn)生更多的電力消耗比（因?yàn)橐恍╇娏碜阅蛞簳?huì)轉(zhuǎn)換為電子），它仍然不是非常有效的。研究人員希望提？？高泵的效率，為后代EcoBot .