An Arduino hydrogen blimp… oh the humanity!

arduino-hydrogen-balloon

This sort of flying contraption seems more suited for indoor use. Well, except for the fire hazard presented by building an Android controlled hydrogen blimp. The problems we often see with quadcopters come into play when a motor wire comes loose and the thing goes flying off in a random direction. Loosing a motor on this airship will be no big deal by comparison. Because the build relies on … [Read more...]

Robot jellyfish fueled by hydrogen from the water around it

robotic-jellyfish

RoboJelly is certainly not what we're used to seeing when it comes to robots. Instead of a cold metallic skeleton, this softie is modeled after jellyfish which have no bones. But that's not the only thing that's unusual about it. This robot also doesn't carry its own power source. It gets the energy needed for locomotion from the water around it. Artificial muscles are what give this the … [Read more...]

High Voltage Hacks: Transmute the elements in your garage

fusion

The magnum opus of alchemy was the Philosopher's stone, a substance that was able to turn common metals into gold. Unlike alchemists, [Carl Willis] might not be poisoning himself in a multitude of ways, but he did build a Farnsworth fusor that's capable of turning Hydrogen into Helium. To fuse Hydrogen in his device, [Carl] first evacuates a vacuum chamber. Deuterium (Hydrogen with an added … [Read more...]

Powering vehicles with aluminum

delorian-runs-on-aluminum

Pop a few aluminum bits into this little RC racer and you'll have power for around forty minutes. This concept, which has been patented, is the result of a college research project. It uses a chemical reaction between aqueous Sodium Hydroxide and aluminum. The result of that reaction is hydrogen, which is gathered and directed to a fuel cell that drives the car. Novel? Yes. Interesting? … [Read more...]

Break out the two-ply, Ecobot III poops

Imagine our surprise when this article on Ecobot III and the disgusting video above showed up in our feed. The robot can theoretically be self-sustaining forever, so long as it has a food source. Yes, you read correctly, food. Typical robots relying on grub burn the biomass to produce heat/steam/energy, but Ecobot III actually digests using Microbial Fuel Cells and extracts energy in the form … [Read more...]

Urine a candidate for energy independence

hydrogen-production-from-urine

We thought we were supposed to have fusion-power for our DeLorean by now but it perhaps urine-power is just around the corner instead. [Gerardine Botte] has been working on creating hydrogen from urine, the world's most abundant waste product. The voltage needed to break apart the urea atoms is less than half that of water, and the way we see it, you've had the added benefit of already using the … [Read more...]