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Edible Pneumatic Battery for Sustained and Repeated Robot Actuation
Bokeon Kwak1, Shuhang Zhang1, Alexander Keller2
1Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, School of Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland.
Advanced Science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)
|October 24, 2025
Summary
This study introduces an edible energy system and valve for powering edible robots. The biodegradable system uses a food-grade acid-base reaction to generate gas for self-sustained robotic motion.
Area of Science:
- Robotics
- Materials Science
- Biotechnology
Background:
- Developing biodegradable and edible energy solutions is crucial for sustainable technologies.
- Existing energy systems often lack edibility and biodegradability.
- Pneumatically driven robots require efficient and safe power sources.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and demonstrate a fully edible energy storage and valve system.
- To power pneumatically actuated edible robots with a biodegradable system.
- To enable self-sustained, programmable motion in edible robotic systems.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an acid-base neutralization reaction between citric acid and sodium bicarbonate for CO2 gas generation.
- Integrated an edible pneumatic actuator and an automatic edible valve.
- Scaled the system for variable sizes, operation times, and gas generation rates.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated a fully edible system capable of self-sustained, repetitive actuator bending motion.
- Achieved scalable system characteristics for size, operation time, and gas production.
- Showcased programmable actuator motion through modifications in orifice size and fluidic resistance.
Conclusions:
- The edible energy storage and valve system successfully powers edible robots.
- The system offers a scalable and programmable solution for biodegradable robotics.
- Applications include edible actuators mimicking prey behavior for predator attraction.
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