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BatteryOne of our first goals in making an edible robot was to make an edible power source. Because our definition of a robot was originally something that moved due to an electrical signal, it seemed important to have an edible power source. We allowed ourselves to use metal wires and electrodes so that the goal would be possible. All of our attempts used various fruits and vegetables with two electrodes in them. We found that using one copper electrode and one magnesium electrode worked the best, and that as the electrodes were moved closer together, the voltage increased. The electrodes were placed in various different media, including lemons, limes, potatoes, onions, Gatorade, and salt water, but we found that all of these performed similarly.The voltage from a single battery was consistently around 0.9 V. This seemed promising, but we soon realized that these batteries produced almost no current. By attaching a resistor across the leads of the battery, measuring the voltage drop across the resistor and dividing to calculate the current, we found a current around 0.01 mA, not enough to power anything significant even if several were connected in parallel. Finally, we concluded that an edible battery was not feasible with the materials available to us. |
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