机器人也吃饭

机器人也吃饭

Robots are supposed to run on batteries, right? Well, not all of them.

Scientists in England have built a series of small robots that get their energy from dead flies, rotten apples, or sugar. One robot, called Slugbot, was even designed to hunt garden insects for dinner!

Well, scientists at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory want to invent robots that can operate for long periods of time in dark, dirty, or dangerous places. Many of those spots, like the seafloor or Antarctica, don’t have electrical sockets (插座). So inventor Chris Melhuish came up with a better idea: Build robots that get their energy just like animals do — by hunting and eating food from their environment.

The robots digest their food in a series of stomach-like devices called microbial （微生物的） fuel cells that are full of bacteria!

The bacteria do the real eating, munching dead flies or other food fed into the fuel cells. As the bacteria eat up the food, they release electrons（电子）. Electrons are charged particles （微粒） that flow to form electricity