Sweet robot

Stuart Wilkinson of the University of Florida (USA) created the first robot in the world that eats only food.

Stuart Wilkinson says he feeds a robot, christened Chew-Chew, with sugar, because this product is completely digested by bacteria from his “stomach”, without any waste. Still, the ideal food product that provides the robot with the necessary energy would be meat, Wilkinson says.

Nevertheless, Chew-Chew is quite a heavyweight robot. The so-called gastro-robot consists of three cars each meter long. “He has to be fed almost like a child, because he has neither arms nor legs,” Wilkinson said.
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Many bacteria have been introduced into the robot's stomach to convert sugar into energy.

During the collapse of the mollusks of sugar into water and carbon dioxide, electrons are produced, which charge the batteries. Only when the battery of the robot is fully charged it has enough strength to move on its 12 wheels.

Wilkinson admits that this is not the newest converter of food products into electricity, but said that he was the first to manage to construct a device of such a small size that it can be placed in a robot. In the future, robots will be able to go out and eat.

At the same time, Wilkinson states that gastro-robots should not be accustomed to meat. “Otherwise, they may try to eat people,” warns the American scientist.

Gastrobotics page on the University of Florida website