Gadgets and gizmos

We love weird robots. We aren’t so keen on poo but sometimes you have just got to take the good with the bad it seems.

Scientists in the fair city of Bristol have been working on a robot which runs off human sewage for a while and now their messy work seems to be nearing an end. The robot in question is called Ecobot III, which suggests to us that there are a couple of other faeces using machines already out there.

The idea behind this clever little excrement loving buddy is that it uses the nutrients found in human waste to cut down on energy costs and to avoid the environmental problems caused by energy wastage.

A World First

The robot uses trays which contain the stools (we’re running out of pleasant synonyms here, by the way) and has batteries which produce the electricity it runs off. The boffins at Bristol Robotics Laboratory said that it is the first time this kind of robot has been produced. Apart from our worries about rogue Ecobot I and Ecobot II models being out there on the loose we can well believe that no one has made this sort of device before.

The poo in question was generously supplied by Wessex Water so any readers who contribute to the stocks of this company can feel proud of adding their own little bit of energy to the robot.

The idea is credited to Dr Julian Dennis and the big hope now is that sewage plants could make this kind of robot on a bigger scale and run them on the waste which they already have.