Saturday 30 November 2013

Researchers develop 3D-printed, urine-powered robot heart

Researchers develop 3D-printed, urine-powered robot heart
Nov 30th 2013, 16:00, by Carl Franzen

The fictional human-powered machines that appear in the The Matrix trilogy are still far from reality — but maybe not that far. Last month, scientists at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the UK announced they had successful create a prototype robotic "heart" that runs on human urine, fabricated with a 3D printer. A full working robot is still under development. For now, researchers built only the heart itself out of a rubber-like 3D printed material known as TangoPlus, and demonstrated its ability to charge up to 3.5 volts and perform 33 pumps using just 2 milliliters of "fresh" human urine. But they have ambitious ideas for a future fleet of ecologically-friendly robots, or EcoBots, "powered by energy from waste collected from...
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