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A robot that eats pollution
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Not SyncedHi, I'm an engineer,
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Not Syncedand I make robots.
-
Not SyncedNow, of course you all know
what a robot is, right? -
Not SyncedIf you don't,
-
Not Syncedyou'd probably go to Google,
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Not Syncedand you'd ask Google what a robot is,
-
Not Syncedso let's do that.
-
Not SyncedGo to Google,
-
Not Syncedand this is what we get.
-
Not SyncedYou can see here lots
of different types of robots, -
Not Syncedbut they're predominantly
humanoid in structure. -
Not SyncedAnd they look pretty conventional
because they've got plastic, -
Not Syncedthey've got metal,
-
Not Syncedthey've got motors and gears and so on.
-
Not SyncedSome of them look quite friendly,
-
Not Syncedand you could go up
and you could hug them. -
Not SyncedSome of them not so friendly,
-
Not Syncedthey look like they're straight
out of "Terminator," -
Not Syncedin fact they may well be straight
our of "Terminator." -
Not SyncedYou can do lots of really cool
things with these robots -- -
Not Syncedyou could do really exciting stuff.
-
Not SyncedBut I'd like to look at different
kinds of robots; -
Not SyncedI want to make different kinds of robots.
-
Not SyncedI take inspiration from the things
that don't look like us, -
Not Syncedbut look like these.
-
Not SyncedSo this is natural biological organisms,
-
Not Syncedand they do some really cool
things that we can't -
Not Syncedand current robots can't either.
-
Not SyncedThey do all sorts great things
like moving around the the floor; -
Not Syncedthey go into our gardens
and they eat our crops; -
Not Syncedthey climb trees;
-
Not Syncedthey go in water,
-
Not Syncedthey come out of water;
-
Not Syncedthey trap insects and digest them.
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Not SyncedSo they do really interesting things.
-
Not SyncedThey live, they breathe, they die,
they eat things from the environment. -
Not SyncedOur current robots don't really do that.
-
Not SyncedNow would it be great if you could
use some of those characteristics -
Not Syncedin future robots
-
Not Syncedso that you could solve some
really interesting problems? -
Not SyncedI'm going to look at a couple of problems
now in the environment -
Not Syncedwhere we can use the skills and the
technologies derived from these animals -
Not Syncedand from the plants,
-
Not Syncedand we can use them
to solve those problems. -
Not SyncedLet's have a look at two
environmental problems. -
Not SyncedThey're both of our making --
-
Not Syncedthis is man interacting
with the environment -
Not Syncedand doing some rather unpleasant things.
-
Not SyncedThe first one is to do with
the pressure of population. -
Not SyncedSuch is the pressure of population
around the world -
Not Syncedthat agriculture and farming is required
to produce more and more crops. -
Not SyncedTo do that,
-
Not Syncedfarmers put more and more
chemicals onto their land. -
Not SyncedThey put on fertilizers,
nitrates, pesticides ... -
Not Syncedall sorts of things that encourage
the growth of the crops, -
Not Syncedbut there are some negative impacts.
-
Not SyncedOne of the negative impacts is
if you put lots of fertilizer on the land, -
Not Syncednot all of it goes into the crops.
-
Not SyncedLots of it stays in the soil,
-
Not Syncedand then when it rains,
-
Not Syncedthese chemicals go into the water table.
-
Not SyncedAnd in the water table,
-
Not Syncedthen they go into streams,
into lakes, into rivers, -
Not Syncedand into the sea.
-
Not SyncedIf you put all of these chemicals,
-
Not Syncedthese nitrates,
-
Not Syncedinto those kinds of environments,
-
Not Syncedthere are organisms in those environments
that will be affected by that -- -
Not Syncedalgae, for example.
-
Not SyncedAlgae loves nitrates,
-
Not Syncedit loves fertilizer,
-
Not Syncedso it will take in all these chemicals,
-
Not Syncedand if the conditions are right,
-
Not Syncedit will mass produce.
-
Not SyncedIt will produce masses
and masses of new algae. -
Not SyncedThat's called a bloom.
-
Not SyncedThe trouble is that when algae
reproduces like this, -
Not Syncedit starves the water of oxygen.
-
Not SyncedAs soon as you do that,
-
Not Syncedthe other organisms
in the water can't survive. -
Not SyncedSo, what do we do?
-
Not SyncedWe try to produce a robot
that will eat the algae, -
Not Syncedconsume it
-
Not Syncedand make it safe.
-
Not SyncedSo that's the first problem.
-
Not SyncedThe second problem is also of our making,
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Not Syncedand it's to do with oil pollution.
-
Not SyncedNow, oil comes out of
the engines that we use, -
Not Syncedthe boats that we use.
-
Not SyncedSometimes tankers flush their
oil tanks into the sea, -
Not Syncedso oil is released into the sea that way.
-
Not SyncedWouldn't it be nice if we
could treat that in some way -
Not Syncedusing robots that could eat the pollution
the oil fields have produced. -
Not SyncedSo that's what we do.
-
Not SyncedWe make robots that will eat pollution.
-
Not SyncedTo actually make the robot,
-
Not Syncedwe take inspiration from two organisms.
-
Not SyncedOn the right there
you see the basking shark. -
Not SyncedThe basking shark is a massive shark.
-
Not SyncedIt's non-carnivorous,
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Not Syncedso you can swim with it,
-
Not Syncedas you can see.
-
Not SyncedAnd the basking shark opens its mouth,
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Not Syncedand it swims through the water,
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Not Syncedcollecting plankton.
-
Not SyncedAs it does that,
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Not Syncedit digests the food,
-
Not Syncedand then it uses that energy
in its body to keep moving. -
Not SyncedSo, could we make a robot like that --
-
Not Syncedlike the basking shark that chugs
through the water, -
Not Syncedand eats up pollution?
-
Not SyncedWell, let's see if we can do that.
-
Not SyncedBut also, we take the inspiration
from other organisms. -
Not SyncedSo I've got a picture here
of the water boatman, -
Not Syncedand the water boatman is really cute.
-
Not SyncedWhen its swimming in the water,
-
Not Syncedit uses its paddle-like legs
to push itself forward. -
Not SyncedSo we take those two organisms,
-
Not Syncedand we combine them together
to make a new kind of robot. -
Not SyncedIn fact, because we're using
the water boatman as inspiration, -
Not Syncedand our robot sits on top of the water,
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Not Syncedand it rows,
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Not Syncedwe call it the "Row-bot."
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Not SyncedSo, a Row-bot is a robot that rows.
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Not SyncedWhat does it look like?
-
Not SyncedHere's some pictures of the robot,
-
Not Syncedand you'll see,
-
Not Syncedit doesn't look anything like
the robots we saw right at the beginning. -
Not SyncedGoogle is wrong;
-
Not Syncedrobots don't look like that,
-
Not Syncedthey look like this.
-
Not SyncedI've got the robot here.
-
Not SyncedI'll just hold it up for you.
-
Not SyncedIt gives you a sense of the scale,
-
Not Syncedand it doesn't look
anything like the others. -
Not SyncedOK, so it's made out of plastic,
-
Not Syncedand we'll have a look now
at the components -
Not Syncedthat make up the robot --
-
Not Syncedwhat makes it really special.
-
Not SyncedThe robot is made up of three parts,
-
Not Syncedand those three parts are really like
the parts of any organism. -
Not SyncedIt's got a brain,
-
Not Syncedit's got a body
-
Not Syncedand it's got a stomach.
-
Not SyncedIt needs a stomach to create the energy.
-
Not SyncedAny robot will have
those three components, -
Not Syncedand any organism will have
those three components, -
Not Syncedso let's go through them one at a time.
-
Not SyncedIt has a body,
-
Not Syncedand its body is made out of plastic,
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Not Syncedand it sits on top of the water.
-
Not SyncedIt's got flippers on the side here --
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Not Syncedpaddles that help it move,
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Not Syncedjust like the water boatman.
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Not SyncedIt's got a plastic body,
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Not Syncedbut it's got soft rubber mouth here,
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Not Syncedand a mouth here --
-
Not Syncedit's got two mouths.
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Not SyncedWhy does it have two mouths?
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Not SyncedOne is to let the food go in,
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Not Syncedand the other is to let the food go out.
-
Not SyncedYou can see really it's got
a mouth and a derriere, -
Not Syncedor a --
-
Not Syncedsomething where the stuff comes out,
-
Not Syncedwhich is just like a real organism.
-
Not SyncedSo it's starting to look
like that basking shark. -
Not SyncedThat's the body.
-
Not SyncedThe second component might be the stomach.
-
Not SyncedWe need to get the energy into the robot
and we need to treat the pollution, -
Not Syncedso the pollution goes in,
-
Not Syncedand it will do something.
-
Not SyncedIt's got a cell in the middle here
called a microbial fuel cell. -
Not SyncedI'll put this down and I'll
lift of the fuel cell. -
Not SyncedInstead of having batteries,
-
Not Syncedinstead of having
a conventional power system, -
Not Syncedit's got one of these.
-
Not SyncedThis is it's stomach.
-
Not SyncedAnd it really is a stomach because you
can put energy in this side -
Not Syncedin the form of pollution,
-
Not Syncedand it creates electricity.
-
Not SyncedSo what is it?
-
Not SyncedIt's got a microbial fuel cell.
-
Not SyncedIt's a little bit like
a chemical fuel cell, -
Not Syncedwhich you might have
come across in school, -
Not Syncedor you might've seen in the news.
-
Not SyncedChemical fuel cells
take hydrogen and oxygen, -
Not Syncedand they can combine them together
and you get electricity. -
Not SyncedThat's well-established technology,
-
Not Syncedit was in the Apollo space missions.
-
Not SyncedThat's from 40, 50 years ago.
-
Not SyncedThis is slightly newer.
-
Not SyncedThis is a microbial fuel cell.
-
Not SyncedIt's the same principle:
-
Not Syncedit's got oxygen on one side,
-
Not Syncedbut instead of hydrogen on the other,
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Not Syncedit's got some soup,
-
Not Syncedand inside that soup
there are living microbes. -
Not SyncedIf you take some organic material --
-
Not Syncedcould be some waste products,
-
Not Syncedsome food,
-
Not Syncedmaybe a bit of your sandwich --
-
Not Syncedyou put it in there,
-
Not Syncedthe microbes will eat that food,
-
Not Syncedand they will turn it into electricity.
-
Not SyncedNot only that,
-
Not Syncedbut if you select
the right kind of microbes, -
Not Syncedyou can use the microbial fuel cell
to treat some of the pollution. -
Not SyncedIf you choose the right microbes,
-
Not Syncedthe microbes will eat algae.
-
Not SyncedIf you use other kind of microbes,
-
Not Syncedthey will eat petroleum
spirits and crude oil. -
Not SyncedSo you can see how
this stomach could be used -
Not Syncedto not only treat the pollution,
-
Not Syncedbut also to generate electricity
from the pollution. -
Not SyncedThe robot will move
through the environment, -
Not Syncedtaking food into its stomach,
-
Not Synceddigest the food,
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Not Syncedcreate electricity,
-
Not Synceduse that electricity to move
through the environment, -
Not Syncedand keep doing this.
-
Not SyncedOK, so let's see what happens
when we run the Row-bot -- -
Not Syncedwhen it does some rowing.
-
Not SyncedHere we've got a couple of videos,
-
Not Syncedthe first thing you'll see --
-
Not Syncedhopefully you can see here
is the mouth open. -
Not SyncedThe front mouth and the bottom mouth open,
-
Not Syncedand it will stay opened enough,
-
Not Syncedthen the robot will start to move forward.
-
Not SyncedIt moves through the water so that food
goes in as the waste products go out. -
Not SyncedOnce it's moved enough,
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Not Syncedit stops and then it closes the mouth --
-
Not Syncedslowly closes the mouths --
-
Not Syncedand then it will sit there,
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Not Syncedand it will digest the food.
-
Not SyncedOf course these microbial fuel cells,
-
Not Syncedthe contain microbes.
-
Not SyncedWhat you really want is lots of energy
coming out of those microbes -
Not Syncedas quickly as possible.
-
Not SyncedBut we can't force the microbes,
-
Not Syncedand they generate a small amount
of electricity per second. -
Not SyncedThey generate miliwatts, or microwatts.
-
Not SyncedLet's put that into context.
-
Not SyncedYou're mobile phone for example,
-
Not Syncedone of these modern ones,
-
Not Syncedif you use it,
-
Not Syncedit takes about one watt.
-
Not SyncedSo that's a thousand or a million times
as much energy that that uses -
Not Syncedcompared to the microbial fuel cell.
-
Not SyncedHow can we cope with that?
-
Not SyncedWhen the robot has done its digestion,
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Not Syncedand it's taken the food in,
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Not Syncedit will sit there and it will wait until
it has consumed all that food. -
Not SyncedThat could take some hours,
-
Not Syncedit could take some days.
-
Not SyncedA typical cycle for the Row-bot
looks like this: -
Not Syncedyou open your mouth,
-
Not Syncedyou move,
-
Not Syncedyou close your mouth,
-
Not Syncedand you sit there for a while waiting.
-
Not SyncedOnce you digest your food,
-
Not Syncedthen you can go about doing
the same thing again. -
Not SyncedBut you know what,
-
Not Syncedthat looks like a real
organism, doesn't it? -
Not SyncedIt looks like the kind of thing we do.
-
Not SyncedSaturday night,
-
Not Syncedwe go out,
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Not Syncedopen our mouths,
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Not Syncedfill our stomachs,
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Not Syncedsit in front of the telly
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Not Syncedand digest.
-
Not SyncedWhen we've had enough,
-
Not Syncedwe do the same thing again.
-
Not SyncedOK, if we're lucky with this cycle,
-
Not Syncedat the end of the cycle we'll have
enough energy left over -
Not Syncedfor us to be able to do something else.
-
Not SyncedWe could send a message, for example.
-
Not SyncedWe could send a message saying,
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Not Synced"This is how much pollution
I've eaten recently," -
Not Syncedor, "This is the kind of stuff
that I've encountered," -
Not Syncedor, "This is where I am."
-
Not SyncedThat ability to send a message
saying, "This is where I am," -
Not Syncedis really really important.
-
Not SyncedIf you think about the oil slicks
that we saw before, -
Not Syncedor those massive algal blooms,
-
Not Syncedwhat you really want to do
is put your robot out there, -
Not Syncedand eats up all of those pollutions,
-
Not Syncedand then you have to go collect them.
-
Not SyncedWhy?
-
Not SyncedBecause these robots at the moment,
-
Not Syncedthis robot I've got here,
-
Not Syncedit contains motors,
-
Not Syncedit contains wires,
-
Not Syncedit contains components which
themselves are not biodegradeable. -
Not SyncedCurrent robots contain things
like toxic batteries. -
Not SyncedYou can't leave those in the environment,
-
Not Syncedso you need to track them
-
Not Syncedand then when they've finished
their [job] of work, -
Not Syncedyou need to collect them.
-
Not SyncedThat limits the number
of robots you can use. -
Not SyncedIf on the other hand,
-
Not Syncedyou have robot a little bit like
a biological organism, -
Not Syncedwhen it comes to the end of its life,
-
Not Syncedit dies and it degrades to nothing.
-
Not SyncedSo wouldn't it be nice if these robots,
-
Not Syncedinstead of being like this --
-
Not Syncedmade out of plastic --
-
Not Syncedare made out of other materials,
-
Not Syncedwhich when you throw them out there,
-
Not Syncedthey biodegrade to nothing.
-
Not SyncedThat changes the way
in which we use robots. -
Not SyncedInstead of putting 10 or 100
out into the environment, -
Not Syncedhaving to track them,
-
Not Syncedand then when they die,
-
Not Syncedcollect them,
-
Not Syncedyou could put 1,000, a million,
a billion robots -
Not Syncedinto the environment.
-
Not SyncedJust spread them around.
-
Not SyncedYou know that at the end of their lives
they're going to degrade to nothing. -
Not SyncedYou don't need to worry about them.
-
Not SyncedSo that changes the way in which
you think about robots -
Not Syncedand the way you deploy them.
-
Not SyncedThe question is:
-
Not Syncedcan you do this?
-
Not SyncedWell, yes, we have shown
that you can do this. -
Not SyncedYou can make robots
which are biodegradable. -
Not SyncedWhat's really interesting is you
can use household materials -
Not Syncedto make these biodegradable robots.
-
Not SyncedI'll show you some;
-
Not Syncedyou might be surprised.
-
Not SyncedYou can make a robot out of jelly.
-
Not SyncedInstead of having a motor,
-
Not Syncedwhich we have at the moment,
-
Not Syncedyou can make things called
artificial muscles. -
Not SyncedArtifical muscles are smart materials,
-
Not Syncedyou apply electricity to them,
-
Not Syncedand they contract,
or they bend or they twist. -
Not SyncedThey look like real muscles.
-
Not SyncedInstead of having a motor,
-
Not Syncedyou have these artificial muscles.
-
Not SyncedAnd you can make artificial
muscles out of jelly. -
Not SyncedIf you take some jelly and some salts,
-
Not Syncedand do a bit of jiggery potpourri,
-
Not Syncedyou can make an artificial muscle.
-
Not SyncedWe've also shown you can make
the microbial fuel cell's stomach -
Not Syncedout of paper.
-
Not SyncedSo you could make the whole
robot out of biodegradable materials. -
Not SyncedYou throw them out there
and they degrade to nothing. -
Not SyncedThis is really, really exciting.
-
Not SyncedIt's going to totally change the way
in which we think about robots, -
Not Syncedbut also it allows you
to be really creative -
Not Syncedin the way in which you think about
what you can do with these robots. -
Not SyncedI'll give you an example.
-
Not SyncedIf you can use jelly to make a robot --
-
Not Syncedand we eat jelly, right?
-
Not SyncedSo, why not make something like this?
-
Not SyncedA robot gummy bear.
-
Not SyncedHere I've got something
I prepared earlier. -
Not SyncedI've got a packet --
-
Not Syncedand I've got a lemon flavored one.
-
Not SyncedI'll take this gummy bear --
-
Not Syncedhe's not robot, OK?
-
Not SyncedWe have to pretend.
-
Not SyncedAnd what we do with one of these
is you put it in your mouth -- -
Not Syncedthe lemon's quite nice.
-
Not SyncedDon't chew it too much,
-
Not Syncedit's a robot.
-
Not SyncedAnd then you swallow.
-
Not SyncedAnd then it goes into your stomach.
-
Not SyncedWhen it's inside your stomach,
-
Not Syncedit moves, it thinks, it twists, it bends,
-
Not Syncedit does something.
-
Not SyncedIt could go further down
into your intestines, -
Not Syncedfind our whether you've got
some ulcer or cancer, -
Not Syncedmaybe do an injection,
-
Not Syncedsomething like that.
-
Not SyncedYou know that once it's done
it's job of work, -
Not Syncedit could be consumed by your stomach,
-
Not Syncedor if you don't want that,
-
Not Syncedit could go straight through you,
-
Not Syncedinto the toilet,
-
Not Syncedand be degraded safely in the environment.
-
Not SyncedThis changes the way, again
in which we think about robots. -
Not SyncedSo, we started off looking at
robots that would eat pollution, -
Not Syncedand now we're looking at robots
which we can eat. -
Not SyncedI hope this gives you some idea
-
Not Syncedof the kinds of things we can do
with future robots. -
Not SyncedThank you very much
for your attention. -
Not Synced(Applause)
- Title:
- A robot that eats pollution
- Speaker:
- Jonathan Rossiter
- Description:
-
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:10
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz accepted English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Joanna Pietrulewicz edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution | ||
Leslie Gauthier edited English subtitles for A robot that eats pollution |
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