In this TED talk, roboticist Jonathan Rossiter explains his vision of biodegradable robots that eats pollution. He and his team have developed the “Row-bot,” a robot that cleans up pollution and generates the electricity needed to power itself by swallowing dirty water.

Row-bot uses a microbial fuel cell to neutralize algal blooms and oil slicks, and it could be a precursor to biodegradable, autonomous pollution-fighting robots.