Energy Autonomy: Ecobot

One goal of our work is to build energetically autonomous robots. For this, the Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology is employed to extract electrical energy from refined foods such as sugar and unrefined foods such as insects and fruit. This is achieved by extracting electrons from the microbial metabolic processes. To be truly autonomous, robots will be required to incorporate in their behavioural repertoire actions that involve searching, collecting and digesting food. The robot will be designed to remain inactive until sufficient energy has been generated to complete its next task. This may prove to be a paradigm shift in the way action selection mechanisms are designed - (Project code-name:‘EcoBot’).

So far, three such robots, namely EcoBot-I, EcoBot-II and EcoBot-III (aka BREADbot) have been developed, which - to some extent - exhibit this type of behaviour. EcoBot-I, was developed in 2002 and employed MFCs with E. coli that were fed with sugar and had ferricyanide cathodes. EcoBot-II, was developed in 2004 and used MFCs with sludge microbes that were fed (amongst other substrates) with dead insects and food waste (watch video), but also employed oxygen cathodes. In both these cases, the MFCs onboard the robots were operating in batch mode (closed systems). EcoBot-III (2010, video and description), on the other hand, employed continuous-flow MFCs with sludge microbes and oxygen cathodes, and it also maintained a periodic circulation of fresh fluids and evacuation of waste.

This project, using the same MFC technology, is also looking into stack development and scalability, waste and wastewater treatment and utilisation and underwater autonomy based on artificial gills for robots.

Ecobot Project & Team

Scale-up of Microbial Fuel Cells for Wastewater Treatment

Microbial Fuel Cell Stacks

For more information or any comments about the ecobot project please email to ioannis.ieropoulos@brl.ac.uk