The robot is able to navigate obstacles Phillips, N., Draper, T.C., Mayne, R. et al. (2022)
A robot piloted by a ball of algae can swim through water and move around obstacles, powered only by photosynthesis.
at the University of the West of England, UK, and his colleagues wanted to build a robot with no electronic parts, meaning it wouldn’t interfere with any electromagnetically sensitive measurement instruments. The team inserted a marimo, a ball of algae that forms naturally in freshwater currents, inside a 3D-printed plastic spherical shell equipped with vents. When the group submerged the…
