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A robot that eats pollution
-
0:01 - 0:02Hi, I'm an engineer,
-
0:02 - 0:04and I make robots.
-
0:04 - 0:07Now, of course you all know
what a robot is, right? -
0:08 - 0:09If you don't,
-
0:09 - 0:10you'd probably go to Google,
-
0:10 - 0:12and you'd ask Google what a robot is.
-
0:12 - 0:13So let's do that.
-
0:14 - 0:15We'll go to Google,
-
0:15 - 0:17and this is what we get.
-
0:17 - 0:20You can see here there are lots
of different types of robots, -
0:20 - 0:23but they're predominantly
humanoid in structure. -
0:24 - 0:27And they look pretty conventional
because they've got plastic, -
0:27 - 0:28they've got metal,
-
0:28 - 0:30they've got motors and gears and so on.
-
0:30 - 0:32Some of them look quite friendly,
-
0:32 - 0:34and you could go up
and you could hug them. -
0:34 - 0:35Some of them not so friendly,
-
0:35 - 0:37they look like they're
straight out of "Terminator," -
0:37 - 0:40in fact they may well be
straight out of "Terminator." -
0:40 - 0:43You can do lots of really cool
things with these robots -- -
0:43 - 0:45you can do really exciting stuff.
-
0:45 - 0:48But I'd like to look at different
kinds of robots -- -
0:48 - 0:50I want to make different kinds of robots.
-
0:50 - 0:53I take inspiration from the things
that don't look like us, -
0:53 - 0:55but look like these.
-
0:55 - 0:58So [these are] natural
biological organisms, -
0:58 - 1:00and they do some really cool
things that we can't, -
1:00 - 1:03and current robots can't either.
-
1:03 - 1:06They do all sorts great things
like moving around the the floor; -
1:06 - 1:08they go into our gardens
and they eat our crops; -
1:08 - 1:09they climb trees;
-
1:09 - 1:10they go in water,
-
1:10 - 1:12they come out of water;
-
1:12 - 1:14they trap insects and digest them.
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1:14 - 1:16They do really interesting things.
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1:16 - 1:20They live, they breathe, they die,
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1:20 - 1:22they eat things from the environment.
-
1:22 - 1:24Our current robots don't really do that.
-
1:24 - 1:27Now wouldn't it be great if you could
use some of those characteristics -
1:27 - 1:29in future robots
-
1:29 - 1:32so that you could solve some
really interesting problems? -
1:32 - 1:35I'm going to look at a couple of problems
now in the environment -
1:35 - 1:39where we can use the skills and the
technologies derived from these animals, -
1:39 - 1:41and from the plants,
-
1:41 - 1:43and we can use them
to solve those problems. -
1:43 - 1:46Let's have a look at two
environmental problems. -
1:46 - 1:48They're both of our making --
-
1:48 - 1:50this is man interacting
with the environment -
1:50 - 1:53and doing some rather unpleasant things.
-
1:53 - 1:56The first one is to do with
the pressure of population. -
1:57 - 1:59Such is the pressure of population
around the world -
1:59 - 2:03that agriculture and farming is required
to produce more and more crops. -
2:03 - 2:04To do that,
-
2:04 - 2:07farmers put more and more
chemicals onto their land. -
2:07 - 2:10They put on fertilizers,
nitrates, pesticides -- -
2:10 - 2:13all sorts of things that encourage
the growth of the crops, -
2:13 - 2:16but there are some negative impacts.
-
2:16 - 2:19One of the negative impacts is
if you put lots of fertilizer on the land, -
2:19 - 2:21not all of it goes into the crops.
-
2:21 - 2:24Lots of it stays in the soil,
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2:24 - 2:26and then when it rains,
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2:26 - 2:28these chemicals go into the water table.
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2:28 - 2:29And in the water table,
-
2:29 - 2:33then they go into streams,
into lakes, into rivers, -
2:33 - 2:34and into the sea.
-
2:35 - 2:36If you put all of these chemicals,
-
2:36 - 2:37these nitrates,
-
2:37 - 2:39into those kinds of environments,
-
2:39 - 2:43there are organisms in those environments
that will be affected by that -- -
2:43 - 2:44algae, for example.
-
2:44 - 2:46Algae loves nitrates,
-
2:46 - 2:47it loves fertilizer,
-
2:47 - 2:49so it will take in all these chemicals,
-
2:49 - 2:51and if the conditions are right,
-
2:51 - 2:52it will mass produce.
-
2:52 - 2:54It will produce masses
and masses of new algae. -
2:54 - 2:56That's called a bloom.
-
2:56 - 2:59The trouble is that when algae
reproduces like this, -
2:59 - 3:01it starves the water of oxygen.
-
3:02 - 3:03As soon as you do that,
-
3:03 - 3:06the other organisms
in the water can't survive. -
3:06 - 3:08So, what do we do?
-
3:08 - 3:12We try to produce a robot
that will eat the algae, -
3:12 - 3:13consume it
-
3:13 - 3:14and make it safe.
-
3:14 - 3:16So that's the first problem.
-
3:16 - 3:19The second problem is also of our making,
-
3:19 - 3:21and it's to do with oil pollution.
-
3:21 - 3:25Now, oil comes out of
the engines that we use, -
3:25 - 3:26the boats that we use.
-
3:26 - 3:29Sometimes tankers flush
their oil tanks into the sea, -
3:29 - 3:31so oil is released into the sea that way.
-
3:31 - 3:34Wouldn't it be nice if we
could treat that in some way -
3:34 - 3:39using robots that could eat the pollution
the oil fields have produced? -
3:39 - 3:41So that's what we do.
-
3:41 - 3:44We make robots that will eat pollution.
-
3:44 - 3:46To actually make the robot,
-
3:46 - 3:48we take inspiration from two organisms.
-
3:48 - 3:51On the right there
you see the basking shark. -
3:51 - 3:53The basking shark is a massive shark.
-
3:53 - 3:55It's noncarnivorous,
-
3:55 - 3:56so you can swim with it,
-
3:56 - 3:57as you can see.
-
3:57 - 3:59And the basking shark opens its mouth,
-
3:59 - 4:01and it swims through the water,
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4:01 - 4:02collecting plankton.
-
4:03 - 4:04As it does that,
-
4:04 - 4:05it digests the food,
-
4:05 - 4:09and then it uses that energy
in its body to keep moving. -
4:10 - 4:11So, could we make a robot like that --
-
4:11 - 4:14like the basking shark
that chugs through the water, -
4:14 - 4:16and eats up pollution?
-
4:16 - 4:18Well, let's see if we can do that.
-
4:18 - 4:21But also, we take the inspiration
from other organisms. -
4:21 - 4:23I've got a picture here
of a water boatman, -
4:23 - 4:25and the water boatman is really cute.
-
4:25 - 4:27When it's swimming in the water,
-
4:27 - 4:29it uses its paddle-like legs
to push itself forward. -
4:30 - 4:32So we take those two organisms,
-
4:32 - 4:35and we combine them together
to make a new kind of robot. -
4:35 - 4:39In fact, because we're using
the water boatman as inspiration, -
4:39 - 4:42and our robot sits on top of the water,
-
4:42 - 4:43and it rows,
-
4:43 - 4:45we call it the "Row-bot."
-
4:45 - 4:49So, a Row-bot is a robot that rows.
-
4:50 - 4:52What does it look like?
-
4:52 - 4:53Here's some pictures of the Row-bot,
-
4:53 - 4:54and you'll see,
-
4:54 - 4:58it doesn't look anything like the robots
we saw right at the beginning. -
4:58 - 4:59Google is wrong;
-
4:59 - 5:00robots don't look like that,
-
5:00 - 5:01they look like this.
-
5:01 - 5:03I've got the Row-bot here.
-
5:03 - 5:04I'll just hold it up for you.
-
5:04 - 5:06It gives you a sense of the scale,
-
5:06 - 5:08and it doesn't look
anything like the others. -
5:08 - 5:10OK, so it's made out of plastic,
-
5:10 - 5:12and we'll have a look now
at the components -
5:12 - 5:13that make up the robot --
-
5:13 - 5:15what makes it really special.
-
5:16 - 5:19The Row-bot is made up of three parts,
-
5:19 - 5:22and those three parts are really like
the parts of any organism. -
5:22 - 5:24It's got a brain,
-
5:24 - 5:25it's got a body
-
5:25 - 5:27and it's got a stomach.
-
5:28 - 5:30It needs the stomach to create the energy.
-
5:30 - 5:32Any Row-bot will have
those three components, -
5:32 - 5:35and any organism will have
those three components, -
5:35 - 5:36so let's go through them one at a time.
-
5:36 - 5:38It has a body,
-
5:38 - 5:40and its body is made out of plastic,
-
5:40 - 5:42and it sits on top of the water.
-
5:42 - 5:45It's got flippers on the side here --
-
5:45 - 5:47paddles that help it move,
-
5:47 - 5:48just like the water boatman.
-
5:48 - 5:50It's got a plastic body,
-
5:50 - 5:53but it's got a soft rubber mouth here,
-
5:53 - 5:54and a mouth here --
-
5:54 - 5:55it's got two mouths.
-
5:55 - 5:56Why does it have two mouths?
-
5:56 - 5:58One is to let the food go in,
-
5:58 - 6:00and the other is to let the food go out.
-
6:00 - 6:03You can see really it's got
a mouth and a derriere, -
6:03 - 6:04or a --
-
6:04 - 6:05(Laughter)
-
6:05 - 6:07something where the stuff comes out,
-
6:07 - 6:09which is just like a real organism.
-
6:09 - 6:12So it's starting to look
like that basking shark. -
6:12 - 6:13That's the body.
-
6:13 - 6:17The second component might be the stomach.
-
6:17 - 6:21We need to get the energy into the robot
and we need to treat the pollution, -
6:21 - 6:22so the pollution goes in,
-
6:22 - 6:23and it will do something.
-
6:24 - 6:27It's got a cell in the middle here
called a microbial fuel cell. -
6:27 - 6:31I'll put this down and I'll
lift up the fuel cell. -
6:31 - 6:32Instead of having batteries,
-
6:32 - 6:34instead of having
a conventional power system, -
6:34 - 6:36it's got one of these.
-
6:36 - 6:37This is its stomach.
-
6:37 - 6:40And it really is a stomach because
you can put energy in this side -
6:40 - 6:42in the form of pollution,
-
6:42 - 6:43and it creates electricity.
-
6:43 - 6:44So what is it?
-
6:44 - 6:46It's called a microbial fuel cell.
-
6:46 - 6:48It's a little bit like
a chemical fuel cell, -
6:48 - 6:50which you might have
come across in school, -
6:50 - 6:52or you might've seen in the news.
-
6:52 - 6:54Chemical fuel cells
take hydrogen and oxygen, -
6:54 - 6:57and they can combine them together
and you get electricity. -
6:57 - 6:59That's well-established technology;
-
6:59 - 7:01it was in the Apollo space missions.
-
7:01 - 7:03That's from 40, 50 years ago.
-
7:03 - 7:04This is slightly newer.
-
7:04 - 7:05This is a microbial fuel cell.
-
7:05 - 7:07It's the same principle:
-
7:07 - 7:08it's got oxygen on one side,
-
7:08 - 7:10but instead of having
hydrogen on the other, -
7:10 - 7:12it's got some soup,
-
7:12 - 7:14and inside that soup
there are living microbes. -
7:15 - 7:17If you take some organic material --
-
7:17 - 7:19could be some waste products,
-
7:19 - 7:20some food,
-
7:20 - 7:21maybe a bit of your sandwich --
-
7:21 - 7:22you put it in there,
-
7:22 - 7:24the microbes will eat that food,
-
7:24 - 7:26and they will turn it into electricity.
-
7:27 - 7:28Not only that,
-
7:28 - 7:30but if you select
the right kind of microbes, -
7:30 - 7:34you can use the microbial fuel cell
to treat some of the pollution. -
7:35 - 7:36If you choose the right microbes,
-
7:36 - 7:39the microbes will eat the algae.
-
7:39 - 7:41If you use other kinds of microbes,
-
7:41 - 7:45they will eat petroleum
spirits and crude oil. -
7:45 - 7:48So you can see how
this stomach could be used -
7:48 - 7:51to not only treat the pollution,
-
7:51 - 7:54but also to generate electricity
from the pollution. -
7:55 - 7:58The robot will move
through the environment, -
7:58 - 8:00taking food into its stomach,
-
8:00 - 8:01digest the food,
-
8:01 - 8:02create electricity,
-
8:02 - 8:05use that electricity to move
through the environment, -
8:05 - 8:06and keep doing this.
-
8:06 - 8:10OK, so let's see what happens
when we run the Row-bot -- -
8:10 - 8:11when it does some rowing.
-
8:11 - 8:13Here we've got a couple of videos,
-
8:13 - 8:14the first thing you'll see --
-
8:14 - 8:17hopefully you can see here
is the mouth open. -
8:17 - 8:20The front mouth and the bottom mouth open,
-
8:20 - 8:21and it will stay opened enough,
-
8:21 - 8:23then the robot will start to row forward.
-
8:23 - 8:27It moves through the water so that food
goes in as the waste products go out. -
8:27 - 8:29Once it's moved enough,
-
8:29 - 8:32it stops and then it closes the mouth --
-
8:32 - 8:34slowly closes the mouths --
-
8:34 - 8:36and then it will sit there,
-
8:36 - 8:38and it will digest the food.
-
8:39 - 8:41Of course these microbial fuel cells,
-
8:41 - 8:42they contain microbes.
-
8:42 - 8:45What you really want is lots of energy
coming out of those microbes -
8:45 - 8:47as quickly as possible.
-
8:47 - 8:48But we can't force the microbes,
-
8:48 - 8:51and they generate a small amount
of electricity per second. -
8:51 - 8:55They generate miliwatts, or microwatts.
-
8:55 - 8:56Let's put that into context.
-
8:56 - 8:58You're mobile phone for example,
-
8:58 - 9:00one of these modern ones,
-
9:00 - 9:01if you use it,
-
9:01 - 9:02it takes about one watt.
-
9:02 - 9:06So that's a thousand or a million times
as much energy that that uses -
9:06 - 9:08compared to the microbial fuel cell.
-
9:08 - 9:10How can we cope with that?
-
9:10 - 9:13When the Row-bot has done its digestion,
-
9:13 - 9:14when it's taken the food in,
-
9:14 - 9:18it will sit there and it will wait until
it has consumed all that food. -
9:18 - 9:19That could take some hours,
-
9:19 - 9:21it could take some days.
-
9:21 - 9:25A typical cycle for the Row-bot
looks like this: -
9:25 - 9:26you open your mouth,
-
9:26 - 9:27you move,
-
9:27 - 9:28you close your mouth,
-
9:28 - 9:30and you sit there for a while waiting.
-
9:30 - 9:32Once you digest your food,
-
9:32 - 9:35then you can go about doing
the same thing again. -
9:35 - 9:36But you know what,
-
9:36 - 9:38that looks like a real
organism, doesn't it? -
9:38 - 9:39It looks like the kind of thing we do.
-
9:39 - 9:40Saturday night,
-
9:40 - 9:41we go out,
-
9:41 - 9:42open our mouths,
-
9:42 - 9:43fill our stomachs,
-
9:43 - 9:45sit in front of the telly
-
9:45 - 9:46and digest.
-
9:46 - 9:47When we've had enough,
-
9:47 - 9:49we do the same thing again.
-
9:49 - 9:52OK, if we're lucky with this cycle,
-
9:52 - 9:55at the end of the cycle we'll
have enough energy left over -
9:55 - 9:57for us to be able to do something else.
-
9:57 - 9:59We could send a message, for example.
-
9:59 - 10:01We could send a message saying,
-
10:01 - 10:03"This is how much pollution
I've eaten recently," -
10:03 - 10:06or, "This is the kind of stuff
that I've encountered," -
10:06 - 10:08or, "This is where I am."
-
10:08 - 10:11That ability to send a message
saying, "This is where I am," -
10:11 - 10:13is really, really important.
-
10:13 - 10:16If you think about the oil slicks
that we saw before, -
10:16 - 10:17or those massive algal blooms,
-
10:17 - 10:20what you really want to do
is put your Row-bot out there, -
10:20 - 10:22and it eats up all of those pollutions,
-
10:22 - 10:24and then you have to go collect them.
-
10:24 - 10:25Why?
-
10:25 - 10:27Because these Row-bots at the moment,
-
10:27 - 10:28this Row-bot I've got here,
-
10:28 - 10:29it contains motors,
-
10:29 - 10:31it contains wires,
-
10:31 - 10:34it contains components which
themselves are not biodegradable. -
10:34 - 10:37Current Row-bots contain
things like toxic batteries. -
10:37 - 10:39You can't leave those in the environment,
-
10:39 - 10:40so you need to track them,
-
10:40 - 10:43and then when they've finished
their job of work, -
10:43 - 10:44you need to collect them.
-
10:44 - 10:46That limits the number
of robots you can use. -
10:46 - 10:48If, on the other hand,
-
10:48 - 10:51you have robot a little bit
like a biological organism, -
10:51 - 10:53when it comes to the end of its life,
-
10:53 - 10:55it dies and it degrades to nothing.
-
10:55 - 10:57So wouldn't it be nice if these Row-bots,
-
10:57 - 11:00instead of being like this
made out of plastic, -
11:00 - 11:01are made out of other materials,
-
11:01 - 11:03which when you throw them out there,
-
11:03 - 11:05they biodegrade to nothing?
-
11:05 - 11:07That changes the way
in which we use robots. -
11:07 - 11:10Instead of putting 10 or 100
out into the environment, -
11:10 - 11:12having to track them,
-
11:12 - 11:13and then when they die,
-
11:13 - 11:14collect them,
-
11:14 - 11:18you could put 1,000, a million,
a billion robots -
11:18 - 11:19into the environment.
-
11:19 - 11:20Just spread them around.
-
11:20 - 11:24You know that at the end of their lives
they're going to degrade to nothing. -
11:24 - 11:25You don't need to worry about them.
-
11:25 - 11:28So that changes the way in which
you think about robots -
11:28 - 11:29and the way you deploy them.
-
11:29 - 11:30Then the question is:
-
11:30 - 11:31can you do this?
-
11:31 - 11:34Well, yes, we have shown
that you can do this. -
11:34 - 11:36You can make robots
which are biodegradable. -
11:36 - 11:39What's really interesting is you
can use household materials -
11:39 - 11:41to make these biodegradable robots.
-
11:41 - 11:42I'll show you some;
-
11:42 - 11:43you might be surprised.
-
11:43 - 11:46You can make a robot out of jelly.
-
11:46 - 11:48Instead of having a motor,
-
11:48 - 11:49which we have at the moment,
-
11:49 - 11:52you can make things
called artificial muscles. -
11:52 - 11:54Artificial muscles are smart materials,
-
11:54 - 11:55you apply electricity to them,
-
11:55 - 11:57and they contract,
or they bend or they twist. -
11:57 - 11:59They look like real muscles.
-
12:00 - 12:01Instead of having a motor,
-
12:01 - 12:03you have these artificial muscles.
-
12:03 - 12:06And you can make artificial
muscles out of jelly. -
12:06 - 12:08If you take some jelly and some salts,
-
12:08 - 12:09and do a bit of jiggery-pokery,
-
12:09 - 12:11you can make an artificial muscle.
-
12:11 - 12:14We've also shown you can make
the microbial fuel cell's stomach -
12:14 - 12:16out of paper.
-
12:16 - 12:19So you could make the whole
Row-bot out of biodegradable materials. -
12:20 - 12:23You throw them out there
and they degrade to nothing. -
12:24 - 12:26This is really, really exciting.
-
12:26 - 12:29It's going to totally change the way
in which we think about robots, -
12:29 - 12:31but also it allows you
to be really creative -
12:31 - 12:34in the way in which you think about
what you can do with these robots. -
12:34 - 12:36I'll give you an example.
-
12:36 - 12:39If you can use jelly to make a robot --
-
12:39 - 12:40now we eat jelly, right?
-
12:40 - 12:43So, why not make something like this?
-
12:43 - 12:45A robot gummy bear.
-
12:45 - 12:48Here, I've got some I prepared earlier.
-
12:49 - 12:51I've got a packet --
-
12:51 - 12:53and I've got a lemon-flavored one.
-
12:54 - 12:56I'll take this gummy bear --
-
12:56 - 12:57he's not robotic, OK?
-
12:57 - 12:58We have to pretend.
-
12:58 - 13:01And what you do with one of these
is you put it in your mouth -- -
13:01 - 13:02the lemon's quite nice.
-
13:03 - 13:04Try not to chew it too much,
-
13:04 - 13:05it's a robot,
-
13:05 - 13:06it may not like it.
-
13:07 - 13:09And then you swallow it.
-
13:09 - 13:11And then it goes into your stomach.
-
13:11 - 13:13When it's inside your stomach,
-
13:13 - 13:15it moves, it thinks, it twists, it bends,
-
13:15 - 13:16it does something.
-
13:16 - 13:18It could go further down
into your intestines, -
13:18 - 13:20find out whether you've got
some ulcer or cancer, -
13:20 - 13:22maybe do an injection,
-
13:22 - 13:23something like that.
-
13:23 - 13:26You know that once
it's done its job of work, -
13:26 - 13:28it could be consumed by your stomach,
-
13:28 - 13:30or if you don't want that,
-
13:30 - 13:31it could go straight through you,
-
13:31 - 13:32into the toilet,
-
13:32 - 13:35and be degraded safely in the environment.
-
13:35 - 13:38This changes the way, again
in which we think about robots. -
13:39 - 13:43So, we started off looking at
robots that would eat pollution, -
13:43 - 13:46and then we're looking
at robots which we can eat. -
13:46 - 13:48I hope this gives you some idea
-
13:48 - 13:50of the kinds of things
we can do with future robots. -
13:52 - 13:54Thank you very much
for your attention. -
13:54 - 13:55(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 |
English subtitles
Revisions Compare revisions
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Revision 11 EditedKrystian Aparta
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Revision 10 EditedKrystian Aparta
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Revision 9 EditedBrian Greene
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Revision 8 EditedBrian Greene
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Revision 7 EditedJoanna Pietrulewicz
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Revision 6 EditedJoanna Pietrulewicz
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Revision 5 EditedLeslie Gauthier
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Revision 4 EditedLeslie Gauthier
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Revision 3 EditedLeslie Gauthier
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Revision 2 EditedLeslie Gauthier
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Revision 1 EditedLeslie Gauthier