All robots need a power source for its operation. It would seem that this statement is almost an axiom. But in fact, scientists sometimes create such mechanisms, in which insight is not so easy. For example, recently demonstrated the robot spider from graphene, which movement does not require anything except a certain humidity of the environment.
The frame of the robot made of films based on graphene oxide, and the robot is not built from graphene, a “cut” of a monolithic piece from high-tech carbon material. Activation of the robot occurs when a bright flash of light and increase the humidity. The robot in motion are able to bend and straighten under the influence of moist air, slowly moving forward. Of course, it is unlikely that someone will “cut” the robots of graphene, because the process of movement of such mechanisms is very complicated. Nevertheless, the potential of this technology quite a lot. For example, graphene can be used as a sensitive element of the sensors, control various parameters of technological processes.
While the scientists are working on developing more complex movements of the robot spider. The main advantage of the new technology is that the processes of obtaining graphene sheets is already quite fast, relatively cheap, and the activation can be performed even from a simple light flash. For more details see the process of movement of the graphene robot spider you can in the video below.
Graphene robot-spider, for whom the movement does not need electricity
Vladimir Kuznetsov