Jonathan Rossiter: A robot that eats pollution
Jonathan Rossiter: En robot som äter föroreningar
Jonathan Rossiter develops soft robotic technologies and turns them into real robots and smart machines for engineers, musicians, doctors and artists. Full bio
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what a robot is, right?
vad en robot är, eller hur?
and this is what we get.
och detta är vad vi får fram.
lots of different types of robots,
många olika sorters robotar,
humanoid in structure.
i sin struktur.
they've got metal,
and you could hug them.
straight out of "Terminator,"
direkt ur "Terminator,"
straight out of "Terminator."
med dessa robotar -
things with these robots --
at different kinds of robots --
andra sorters robotar -
from the things that don't look like us,
från saker som inte ser ut som vi,
really cool things that we can't,
som vi inte kan göra,
inte heller kan göra.
som att röra sig runt på golvet;
like moving around on the floor;
och äter våra grödor;
and they eat our crops;
de kommer upp ur vatten;
characteristics in future robots
de där egenskaperna hos framtida robotar
some really interesting problems?
väldigt intressanta problem?
now in the environment
the skills and the technologies
to solve those problems.
at two environmental problems.
with the environment
som interagerar med miljön
with the pressure of population.
befolkningstrycket.
of population around the world
to produce more and more crops.
mer och mer grödor.
allt mer kemikalier till jorden.
chemicals onto the land.
nitrates, pesticides --
nitrater, bekämpningsmedel -
that encourage the growth of the crops,
grödornas tillväxt,
if you put lots of fertilizer on the land,
att om du tillför mycket gödning,
into lakes, into rivers
till sjöar, älvar
of these chemicals, these nitrates,
dessa nitrater,
att påverkas av det -
that will be affected by that --
de älskar gödningsmedel,
it will mass produce.
kommer de att massföröka sig.
and masses of new algae.
mängder av nya alger.
when algae reproduces like this,
förökar sig på det viset
in the water can't survive.
i vattnet inte överleva.
that will eat the algae,
som äter algerna,
of the engines that we use,
flush their oil tanks into the sea,
sina oljetankar i havet,
if we could treat that in some way
om vi kunde ta hand om det
the oil fields have produced?
som oljan har skapat?
you see the basking shark.
so you can swim with it,
så man kan simma med den,
collecting plankton.
in its body to keep moving.
för att hålla kroppen i rörelse.
that chugs through the water
from other organisms.
från andra organismer.
of a water boatman,
för att ta sig framåt.
to push itself forward.
to make a new kind of robot.
the water boatman as inspiration,
buksimmaren som inspiration,
som vi såg i början.
we saw right at the beginning.
robots don't look like that,
anything like the others.
at the components
som delarna i vilken organism som helst.
like the parts of any organism.
those three components,
will have those three components,
it's got two mouths.
it's got a mouth and a derriere,
och en bakdel,
like that basking shark.
and we need to treat the pollution,
och vi behöver behandla föroreningen,
called a microbial fuel cell.
en mikrobiell bränslecell.
and I'll lift up the fuel cell.
och lyfter upp bränslecellen.
a conventional power system,
in the form of pollution,
i form av föroreningar,
like a chemical fuel cell,
come across in school,
take hydrogen and oxygen,
and you get electricity.
it was in the Apollo space missions.
den användes vid Apollo-resorna.
hydrogen on the other,
på andra sidan,
there are living microbes.
the microbes will eat that food,
så äter mikroberna upp maten,
the right kind of microbes,
om du väljer rätt sorts mikrober,
to treat some of the pollution.
användas för att behandla föroreningen.
spirits and crude oil.
how this stomach could be used
from the pollution.
från föroreningen.
through the environment,
to move through the environment
för att röra sig genom miljön
when we run the Row-bot --
när vi kör Ro-boten -
förhoppningsvis ser ni det,
hopefully you can see here
as the waste products go out.
i takt med att avfallet går ut.
så fort som möjligt.
as quickly as possible.
of electricity per second.
elektricitet per sekund.
as much energy that that uses
mer energi,
has done its digestion,
until it has consumed all that food.
till all mat är uppäten.
it could take some days.
det kan ta några dagar.
looks like this:
för Ro-boten ser ut så här:
doing the same thing again.
like a real organism, doesn't it?
som en riktig organism, eller hur?
we go out, open our mouths,
we do the same thing again.
gör vi om samma sak igen.
we'll have enough energy left over
tillräckligt med energi kvar
I've eaten recently,"
that I've encountered,"
saying, "This is where I am,"
och säga "Här är jag,"
that we saw before,
vi såg tidigare,
is put your Row-bot out there,
sätta ut Ro-boten där,
which themselves are not biodegradable.
som inte är nedbrytbara.
things like toxic batteries.
saker som giftiga batterier.
their job of work,
som man kan använda.
of Row-bots you can use.
like a biological organism,
mer som biologiska organismer,
om dessa robotar,
made out of plastic,
att använda robotar.
in which we use robots.
out into the environment,
10 eller 100 i naturen,
into the environment.
they're going to degrade to nothing.
bryts de ner till ingenting.
in which you think about robots
that you can do this.
which are biodegradable.
att man kan använda hushållsmaterial
is you can use household materials
you might be surprised.
which we have at the moment,
som vi har i dagsläget,
called artificial muscles.
som kallas artificiella muskler.
böjer eller vrider sig.
or they bend or they twist.
you have these artificial muscles.
har man artificiella muskler.
artificiella muskler av gelé.
artificial muscles out of jelly.
the microbial fuel cell's stomach
den mikrobiella bränslecellens mage
robot out of biodegradable materials.
av nedbrytbara material.
and they degrade to nothing.
och de bryts ner till ingenting.
in which we think about robots,
att se på robotar,
to be really creative
vara väldigt kreativa
about what you can do with these robots.
med dessa robotar.
för att göra en robot -
he's not robotic, OK?
han är inte en robot, okej?
is you put it in your mouth --
är att man stoppar den i munnen -
it's a robot, it may not like it.
den tycker inte om det.
it moves, it thinks, it twists, it bends,
tänker, vrider sig, böjer sig,
i tarmsystemet,
into your intestines,
some ulcer or cancer,
something like that.
it's done its job of work,
in which we think about robots.
vårt sätt att se på robotar.
at robots that would eat pollution,
som äter föroreningar,
at robots which we can eat.
we can do with future robots.
med framtida robotar.
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