HOT on the heels of the first synthetic cell comes a slightly lower-brow advance: a synthetic gut. The basic function that it provides could be the key to freedom for self-sustaining robots.
In the bid to create such autonomous robots, researchers turned to biomass as an energy source. By being able to feed themselves, robots could be set to work for long periods without human intervention.
Such food-munching robots have been demonstrated in the past, often generating power with the help of microbial fuel cells (MFCs) - bio-electrochemical devices that enlist cultures of bacteria to break down food to generate power. Until now, though, no one had tackled the messy but inevitable issue of finding a way to evacuate the waste these bugs produce.
What was needed was an artificial gut, says Chris Melhuish, director of the Bristol Robotics Lab in the UK. He has spent three ...
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