The University of Michigan has been developing biomorphic zinc batteries that can integrate into robotics and increase the energy available by up to 72 times what is currently being used. This in turn will help increase the capacity of energy availability and size of the batteries which now is restricting the development of smaller robotics.

“Like biological fat reserves store energy in animals, a new rechargeable zinc battery integrates into the structure of a robot to provide much more energy, a team led by the University of Michigan has shown,” Science Daily reported.

These new batteries increase the storage capacity and thus when size requirements decrease they do not have the limitations of the currently used ones. This will allow smaller applications of robotics both in size and weight. The zinc battery works by storing and transferring energy through an electrolyte membrane made of carbon-based nanofibres and a water-based polymer gel.

"Robot designs are restricted by the need for batteries that often occupy 20% or more of the available space inside a robot, or account for a similar proportion of the robot's weight," said Nicholas Kotov, the Joseph B. and Florence V. Cejka Professor of Engineering, who led the research.

While zinc batteries, at the moment, do not have the lifecycle of lithium ion batteries, their comparatively inexpensive cost and ease of recycling make replacing them easy. This new “design could enable a shift from a single battery to distributed energy storage, using graph theory approach developed at U-M,” Kotov explained. The improved capacity will allow for distributed energy storage, he added.

Ahmet Emre, a doctoral student who was involved in the research, told the Independent: “Batteries that can do double duty – to store charge and protect the robot’s organs – replicate the multifunctionality of fat tissues serving to store energy in living creatures.”

The Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded the research and the battery testing was done at the University of Michigan’s Energy Institute.

Science Robotics has published a paper on the research entitled "Biomorphic structural batteries for robotics."