Researchers are using plants to
light up LEDs and inspire more versatile class of robots
The world has plenty of leaves. Plants can be used to
power electronics, and therefore, scientists have been experimenting with
plants to see if it would be a good source of supply for green power.
At the Center for Micro-BioRobotics at the Instituto Italiano di Tecnologia, which is a research institute in Italy, researchers have experimented with leaves “to capture and convert wind energy into 150 volts of electricity, enough to light up 100 small LEDs. The leaves produce an electrical charge when they come into contact with artificial leaves—translucent sheets of soft silicone rubber fitted onto the plant—much like a balloon rubbed against hair”.
At the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Lanzhou Institute
of Chemical Physics, researchers were able to explain how they were able to use
natural as well as artificial leaves in order to power LEDs and a watch with a
wind-driven process similar to the experiment of the researchers at the Center
for Micro-BioRobotics at the Instituto Italiano di Tecnologia.
The researchers were then able to generate a
connection between natural and artificial leaves by using an electrode to
connect the plant’s trunk to LEDs and by using fans. After testing different
species of plants, they found that some were better at generating power than
others, but practically any land plant could be used.
With this discovery, the researchers hope to figure
out a way for plants to store the energy that they produce. They also hope to
be able to build robots by incorporating the use of plants. One of the
researchers said, “Plants can suggest new ideas because they have very
distributed intelligence, they have perception, they can grow for their entire
life. These are the mechanisms we are implementing in our robots.”
I picked this article because it is very interesting.
Science and technology continues to advance, and it is good to find different
sources of power! This topic relates to marketing concepts because researchers
are trying to show/market a new or different source of power and they can target
the people who want to go green.
By Rebecca
Heilweil
February 28, 2019 10:00 a.m. ET
https://www.wsj.com/articles/green-power-the-quest-to-harness-energy-from-leaves-11551366000
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