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Artificial Metabolism: Towards True Energetic Autonomy in Artificial Life

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Advances in Artificial Life (ECAL 2003)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 2801))

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Abstract

This paper reports on the proof-of-concept work to produce an energetically autonomous robot employing an artificial metabolic system using Microbial Fuel Cells. The present study compared the effects of changing a number of critical parameters, which control the fuel cell system, as a means to improve its overall performance. We demonstrate that the development of a fuel cell as an artificial metabolic system is feasible and it can provide sufficient power for a mobile robot platform to execute photo tactic ‘pulsed’ behaviour. The robot is code-named EcoBot I and it is the first robot in the world to be directly and entirely powered from bacterial reducing power.

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab, Department of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, The University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom

    Ioannis Ieropoulos & Chris Melhuish

  2. Faculty of Applied Sciences, The University of the West of England, Coldharbour Lane, Frenchay, Bristol, BS16 1QY, United Kingdom

    John Greenman

Authors
  1. Ioannis Ieropoulos
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  2. Chris Melhuish
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  3. John Greenman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

    Wolfgang Banzhaf

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Dortmund, 11, Joseph-von-Fraunhofer-Str. 20, 44227, Dortmund, Germany

    Jens Ziegler

  3. Fraunhofer IAIS, Sankt Augustin

    Thomas Christaller

  4. Bio Systems Analysis Group, Jena Centre for Bioinformatics and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Ernst-Abbe-Platz 1–4, D-07743, Jena, Germany

    Peter Dittrich

  5. School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, NR4 7TJ, Norwich, United Kingdom

    Jan T. Kim

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ieropoulos, I., Melhuish, C., Greenman, J. (2003). Artificial Metabolism: Towards True Energetic Autonomy in Artificial Life. In: Banzhaf, W., Ziegler, J., Christaller, T., Dittrich, P., Kim, J.T. (eds) Advances in Artificial Life. ECAL 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 2801. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39432-7_85

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39432-7_85

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-20057-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39432-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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