Some of the news about artificial intelligence projects a Star Wars universe in Earth’s reality. Humans are surrounded by autonomous robots. They will take over mental and physical jobs from humans, but the film leaves a fundamental problem in a benign obscurity. What makes robots ‘go’.
Some were filled with admiration, others with horror at the news that in the spring of 2025 a robot in human form will run half a marathon in Beijing. The time was two hours and 40 minutes. That was slower than the winner of the race, who took just over an hour to complete the distance, but still not a bad result. Many amateur marathon runners would be proud of themselves if they could beat that time.
So I the Robot was able to keep up the pace with enthusiastic runners for 21 kilometres. But there is a problem. During this ‘sporting performance’, the battery had to be changed three times. This is something we can generously overlook as long as we test the robots or use them for entertainment.
But if we are serious about entrusting robots with part of normal people’s daily work, they highlight a big problem. the issue of energy consumption is sti. l unsolved. James Pikul, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, explored this in an article in The Conversation. Luke plugs the charging cable into the R2-D2 in the film, but it doesn’t say how long it goes on a battery charge.
Demonstrations show robots with astonishing capabilities, but that’s just the shop window
In propaganda videos, we see robots that mimic the movements of animals or even humans with astonishing accuracy. They perform complex tasks with much more precision than humans, of course. Sometimes they are better coordinated and more efficient than ‘biological systems’.
But when we look at persistence, we find that robots perform poorly. It is not that they get tired during their activities. They simply become exhausted in a short period of time. More precisely, they run out of power. Pikul has studied this issue carefully. Why are artificial systems so far behind living beings in this area?
The current focus of research is on improving batteries, but a rather bizarre possibility is also being explored. They are looking at the possibility of creating robots that eat, i.e. that produce the energy they need to function by metabolism.
An eight-hour shift is a real problem for a robot trainee
Thanks to advances in biomechanics, motor control and regulation, modern robots mimic the movements of animals and humans surprisingly well. Boston Dynamics’ Spot dog robot and Atlas human imitation can walk, run and crawl with a dexterity previously unimaginable. Their motors are stronger than their muscles.
Endurance is another matter. Spot, for example, can run for 90 minutes on a single battery charge. After that, it needs to be plugged into the charger for nearly an hour. Where’s that compared to the fact that a worker can get up to 12 hours on the treadmill if he has to. A working dog, such as one that searches for people at disaster sites, can also work for many hours.
Robots, like all mobile machines from smartphones to electric cars, are powered by lithium-ion batteries. They are reliable and widely available, but their development is slow. At the current rate, they could double their power in a decade.
You may despise fat, but it’s a great energy storage device
Animals store energy in the form of fat. It has an excellent energy density: nine KWh per kilogram. A sled dog thus stores 68 KWh of energy when in good shape. Meanwhile, the lithium-ion battery of a Tesla Model 3 electric car stores 0.25 KWh of energy per kilogram when fully charged.
This means that even with a particularly efficient motor, Spot would need to recharge dozens of times to match the endurance of a sled dog. And recharging is not always feasible. In remote areas or in disaster stricken places, there is no power source.
Sure, you can build more batteries into robots, but that means more weight. Designers have to balance power, weight and endurance. For example, Spot’s battery accounts for 16 percent of its weight. The use of solar panels is being considered, but they can provide a very poor substitute. It’s no coincidence that plants that rely on them don’t run wild.
And persistence is important. If we expect robots to care for the elderly all day long, to load warehouses, to work in the field alongside people, they need to be able to stay operational for many, many hours.
Alternative energy sources are more or less science fiction
Experiments are under way with entirely new types of batteries. Lithium-sulphur, metal-air solutions go at large in the press. Some systems even contain animal fat. According to The Conversation, the battery life they offer is expected to rival the endurance of animals with low fat content.
However, the next generation of batteries will also have their limitations. They may be difficult to recharge, may deteriorate significantly over time or may be complex and therefore expensive to manufacture. The situation is similar with fast charging: it generates a lot of heat, is not good for battery durability and requires a built-in infrastructure.
These constraints have led some researchers to experiment with metal- or chemical-eating metabolic energy sources. To do this, they want to build artificial stomachs into robots. Others are experimenting with fluids that would mimic the functions of blood, energy transport, cooling and heating. This would replace the battery.
In the light of all these efforts, there is a tricky question. If God or you name it Mother Nature has solved this problem by millions of years of “development”, why not use what is given to us? A human being?
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