Inserting two electrodes into a potato to turn it into a battery is one of the oldest and simplest experiments you can do, but honestly I don't recall anyone deciding to add a supercapacitor, four wheels, an equal number of motors, and a controller to create a self-driving potato. Needless to say, the design doesn't break any speed records... but it works.
History teaches us that the potato arrived in Europe as a curiosity, but over the centuries, its simple cultivation and low cost made it a staple food. This also made the potato responsible for several crises, with the Irish Potato Famine at the forefront. However, what we have here today is a more joyful use of the potato, if you will. By introducing a couple of electrodes, the potato becomes a (very) limited energy source, but it's enough for low-power applications. Marek Baczynski decided to go one step further and add wheels to the design...
The result is a self-driving potato. It needs about fifteen minutes to charge the integrated supercapacitor, and once it crosses a certain voltage (2.85V), it travels the astonishing distance of eight centimeters, or about seven and a half meters per day. The original prototype can only move in one direction, so Baczynski installed a controller and some lines of code so it can choose where it wants to go. The rest of the story is not without charm. Apparently, the potato liked to rest in the sun. Baczynski adopted it as a pet and gave it a name: Pontus.
Unfortunately, Pontus chose to follow its destiny as a potato and ended up baked in the oven, which has left me very sad. Technical details about the design can be found on Reddit, and anyone wishing to reproduce it should be able to do so with relative ease. Personally, I couldn't make something like Pontus, as it would be annihilated by one of my cats. (?)
