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A robot piloted by a ball of algae can swim through water and move around obstacles, powered only by photosynthesis.

at the University of the West of England, UK, and his colleagues wanted to build a robot with no electronic parts, meaning it wouldn鈥檛 interfere with any electromagnetically sensitive measurement instruments. The team inserted a marimo, a ball of algae that forms naturally in freshwater currents, inside a 3D-printed plastic spherical shell equipped with vents. When the group submerged the shell in water and exposed it to light, the marimo produced oxygen from photosynthesis, which pushes the shell away from the light.

鈥淲e鈥檝e looked at a different way of doing things,鈥� says Phillips. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going back to biological processes, so in this case there are no motors, there are no electronics or storage systems, you鈥檙e basically just using photosynthesis.鈥�

The robot can carry basic measurement instruments and navigate obstacles by floating around them. It can鈥檛 be steered manually, making it unsuitable for some tasks, but it could be used for simple investigations such as testing water quality or temperature.

Because the system is so simple, it is reliable, easy to repair and can be manufactured for about 拢25 per robot. While previous robots have used elements of , this is the first to be powered by an entire organism.

鈥淭he system works and they can make it so simply because they鈥檝e trapped an organism in there,鈥� says at the University of Bristol, UK. But that could also be a downside, he says, if parts of the organism escape from the shell. 鈥淏its of the algae will come off and it will end up interacting with the environment unless you have something that is completely impermeable.鈥�