There’s taking the urine, and then there’s taking the urine, sticking it in robots and calling it research. Yes, a team at the Bristol Robotics Lab are looking into the use of pee as the fuel for Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs), which can use bacterial cultures to break down food and other substances in order to create power for robots.

I hope that robot washed its hands.

The team responsible has previously developed the EcoBot-III (also known as the ‘Bread-Bot’), a robot which can power itself by digesting waste, and now they want to build a similar model powered by urine.

Dr Ioannis Ieropolis – whose team received a £564,561 grant to complete the research over the course of four years – is leading the project and he told local press: “Over the years we have fed our MFCs with rotten fruit, grass clippings, prawn shells and dead flies in an attempt to investigate different waste materials to use as a ‘food source’ for the Microbial Fuel Cells.

“We have focused on finding the best waste materials that create the most energy. Urine is chemically very active, rich in nitrogen and has compounds such as urea, chloride, potassium and bilirubin, which make it very good for the microbial fuel cells.”

He added, “We have already done preliminary tests which show it being a waste material that is very effective.”

Researchers are already in touch with “a waterless urinal company” who have seen the potential of the technology. Quite brilliantly, Dr Ieropoulos continued that although it is early days for this research, they hope to work towards producing a prototype portable urinal which would use urine to create power from fuel cells. “We envisage that this could be used, for example, at music festivals and other outdoor events,” he said.

So, the ‘robots’ in question won’t be humanoid figures asking members of the public to use their urine to power up, but instead far more functional robotic creations. One day though. One day.