Abstract
BackgroundThe potential to directly harness photosynthesis to make actuators, biosensors and bioprocessors has been previously demonstrated in the literature. Herein, this capability has been expanded to more advanced systems — Marimo Actuated Rover Systems (MARS) — which are capable of autonomous, solar powered, movement.ResultsWe demonstrate this ability is both a practical and viable alternative to conventional mobile platforms for exploration and dynamic environmental monitoring. Prototypes have been successfully tested to measure their speed of travel and ability to automatically bypass obstacles. Further, MARS is electromagnetically silent, thus avoiding the background noise generated by conventional electro/mechanical platforms which reduces instrument sensitivity. The cost of MARS is significantly lower than platforms based on conventional technology.ConclusionsAn autonomous, low-cost, lightweight, compact size, photosynthetically powered rover is reported. The potential for further system enhancements are identified and under development.
Highlights
The potential to directly harness photosynthesis to make actuators, biosensors and bioprocessors has been previously demonstrated in the literature
Materials and methods Parts were designed in SolidWorks 2019 (Dassault Systèmes) and 3D printed with PLA on an Ultimaker S5
Geometry of rover units For ease of comparison, all variants were designed with an outside diameter of 200 mm
Summary
The potential to directly harness photosynthesis to make actuators, biosensors and bioprocessors has been previously demonstrated in the literature. This capability has been expanded to more advanced systems — Marimo Actuated Rover Systems (MARS) — which are capable of autonomous, solar powered, movement. Marimo Actuated Rover Systems (MARS) is an unconventional solution which presents a novel, solar-powered, autonomous mobile platform which is a simple but effective solution to some of the detriments of traditional stationary systems. Nature has evolved processes to harness solar energy and almost all organisms have some method for harvesting it: a common method is via direct conversion of sunlight into energy via photosynthesis. The electrical energy usually needs to be stored and converted into other forms (such as mechanical or chemical) which reduces the overall efficiency of conversion
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