Jonathan Rossiter: A robot that eats pollution
Jonathan Rossiter: Un robot que se come la contaminación
Jonathan Rossiter develops soft robotic technologies and turns them into real robots and smart machines for engineers, musicians, doctors and artists. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
what a robot is, right?
saben lo que es un robot, ¿no?
and this is what we get.
y esto es lo que encontramos.
lots of different types of robots,
tipos diferentes de robots,
humanoid in structure.
tienen una estructura humanoide.
they've got metal,
and you could hug them.
straight out of "Terminator,"
salido de "Terminator"-
straight out of "Terminator."
chulísimas con estos robots,
things with these robots --
at different kinds of robots --
otro tipo de robots,
from the things that don't look like us,
que no se parecen a nosotros,
que nosotros no podemos,
really cool things that we can't,
like moving around on the floor;
como moverse por el suelo;
y se comen nuestros cultivos;
and they eat our crops;
esas funciones en futuros robots
characteristics in future robots
problemas muy interesantes?
some really interesting problems?
now in the environment
mediambientales actuales
estas habilidades y tecnologías
the skills and the technologies
solucionar dichos problemas.
to solve those problems.
at two environmental problems.
dos problemas mediambientales.
con el mediambiente
with the environment
with the pressure of population.
con la presión demográfica.
of population around the world
en todo el mundo
produzca más y más cosechas.
to produce more and more crops.
químicos en la tierra.
chemicals onto the land.
nitrates, pesticides --
pesticidas...
that encourage the growth of the crops,
el crecimiento de los cultivos,
if you put lots of fertilizer on the land,
si pones mucho fertilizante en la tierra,
la capa freática.
into lakes, into rivers
a los lagos, a los ríos
of these chemicals, these nitrates,
estos nitratos,
que se verán afectados,
that will be affected by that --
el fertiizante,
estos químicos,
se reproducirán en masa.
it will mass produce.
and masses of new algae.
de nuevas algas.
when algae reproduces like this,
las algas se reproducen así,
no pueden sobrevivir.
in the water can't survive.
that will eat the algae,
que se coma las algas,
lo creamos nosotros,
la contaminación del petróleo.
of the engines that we use,
las máquinas que utilizamos,
flush their oil tanks into the sea,
descargan el petróleo en el mar,
solucionar eso de alguna manera,
if we could treat that in some way
the oil fields have produced?
la contaminación de las petroleras?
la contaminación.
you see the basking shark.
al tiburón peregrino.
so you can swim with it,
pueden nadar con él,
collecting plankton.
in its body to keep moving.
para seguir moviéndose.
that chugs through the water
que va tragando por el agua
from other organisms.
en otros organismos.
of a water boatman,
de una corixa,
para impulsarse hacia alante.
to push itself forward.
to make a new kind of robot.
crear un nuevo tipo de robot.
a la corixa como fuente de inspiración,
the water boatman as inspiration,
por encima del agua,
que vimos al principio.
we saw right at the beginning.
los robots no son como esos,
robots don't look like that,
anything like the others.
at the components
a los componentes
like the parts of any organism.
como las de cualquier organismo.
those three components,
estos tres componentes,
will have those three components,
esos tres componentes,
it's got two mouths.
it's got a mouth and a derriere,
y un trasero,
al tiburón peregrino.
like that basking shark.
el estómago.
and we need to treat the pollution,
y necesitamos tratar la contaminación,
called a microbial fuel cell.
llamada célula de combustible microbiana.
and I'll lift up the fuel cell.
la célula de combustible.
a conventional power system,
de energía convencional,
in the form of pollution,
en forma de contaminación,
de combustible química,
like a chemical fuel cell,
come across in school,
toman hidrógeno y oxígeno,
take hydrogen and oxygen,
and you get electricity.
conseguir electricidad.
it was in the Apollo space missions.
se usó en las misiones del Apollo.
hydrogen on the other,
hidrógeno en el otro,
hay microbios vivos.
there are living microbes.
se comerán esa comida
the microbes will eat that food,
the right kind of microbes,
el tipo adecuado de microbios,
to treat some of the pollution.
para tratar la contaminación.
spirits and crude oil.
y el petróleo crudo.
how this stomach could be used
podría utilizarse
from the pollution.
a partir de ella.
through the environment,
to move through the environment
por el entorno
when we run the Row-bot --
cuando enchufamos el Row-bot,
espero que lo puedan ver aquí,
hopefully you can see here
que salen los productos de desecho.
as the waste products go out.
lo más rápido posible.
as quickly as possible.
of electricity per second.
de electricidad por segundo.
as much energy that that uses
tanta energía como la que usa
has done its digestion,
ha hecho su digestión,
until it has consumed all that food.
hasta que haya consumido toda la comida.
it could take some days.
podría llevar días.
looks like this:
sería algo así:
doing the same thing again.
like a real organism, doesn't it?
un organismo real, ¿no?
salimos, abrimos nuestras bocas,
we go out, open our mouths,
hacemos lo mismo otra vez.
we do the same thing again.
we'll have enough energy left over
suficiente energía restante
I've eaten recently,"
he comido hace poco",
that I've encountered,"
que me he encontrado,"
saying, "This is where I am,"
diciendo, "Aquí es donde estoy,"
que hemos visto antes,
that we saw before,
is put your Row-bot out there,
es poner el Row-bot allí,
no son biodegradables.
which themselves are not biodegradable.
cosas como baterías tóxicas.
things like toxic batteries.
de hacer su trabajo,
their job of work,
que se pueden utilizar.
of Row-bots you can use.
like a biological organism,
como un organismo biológico,
hechos de plástico,
made out of plastic,
in which we use robots.
usamos los robots.
out into the environment,
en el entorno,
into the environment.
en el entorno.
they're going to degrade to nothing.
se degradarán por completo.
preocuparse por ellos.
pensamos sobre los robots
in which you think about robots
¿Podemos hacerlo?
que podemos hacerlo.
that you can do this.
que sean biodegradables.
which are biodegradable.
se pueden usar materiales caseros
is you can use household materials
you might be surprised.
puede que les sorprenda.
que es lo que tiene de momento,
which we have at the moment,
músculos artificiales.
called artificial muscles.
materiales inteligentes:
se doblan o se tuercen.
or they bend or they twist.
you have these artificial muscles.
tenemos estos músculos artificiales.
artificial muscles out of jelly.
con gelatina.
the microbial fuel cell's stomach
células microbianas
robot out of biodegradable materials.
con materiales biodegradables.
and they degrade to nothing.
y se degradan por completo.
in which we think about robots,
en que pensamos sobre los robots
ser muy creativos
to be really creative
en qué podríamos hacer con robots.
about what you can do with these robots.
para hacer un robot,
he's not robotic, OK?
no es robótico, ¿vale?
is you put it in your mouth --
ponerlo en la boca,
it's a robot, it may not like it.
es un robot, no les gustará.
it moves, it thinks, it twists, it bends,
se mueve, piensa, se tuerce, se dobla,
hasta tus intestinos,
into your intestines,
alguna úlcera o cáncer,
some ulcer or cancer,
de esta manera.
something like that.
it's done its job of work,
haya terminado su trabajo,
en el entorno.
in which we think about robots.
en que pensamos sobre los robots.
at robots that would eat pollution,
que se comen la contaminación,
podríamos comernos nosotros.
at robots which we can eat.
con futuros robots.
we can do with future robots.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jonathan Rossiter - RoboticistJonathan Rossiter develops soft robotic technologies and turns them into real robots and smart machines for engineers, musicians, doctors and artists.
Why you should listen
Jonathan Rossiter is Professor of Robotics at University of Bristol, and heads the Soft Robotics Group at Bristol Robotics Laboratory. His group researches soft robotics: robots and machines that go beyond conventional rigid and motorized technologies into the world of smart materials, reactive polymers biomimetics and compliant structures. Because they're soft, these robots are inherently safe for interaction with the human body and with the natural environment. They can be used to deliver new healthcare treatments, wearable and assistance devices, and human-interface technologies. They wide impact from furniture to fashion and from space systems to environmental cleanup. They can even be made biodegradable and edible.
Currently a major focus of Rossiter's work is on the development of soft robotic replacement organs for cancer and trauma sufferers and on smart "trousers" to help older people stay mobile for longer.
Jonathan Rossiter | Speaker | TED.com