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EcoBot-III: A robot with guts

Ieropoulos, Ioannis; Greenman, John; Melhuish, Chris; Horsfield, Ian

Authors

Yannis Ieropoulos Ioannis2.Ieropoulos@uwe.ac.uk
Professor in Bioenergy & Director of B-B

Chris Melhuish Chris.Melhuish@uwe.ac.uk
Professor of Robotics & Autonomous Systems

Ian Horsfield



Contributors

Harold Fellermann
Editor

Mark D�rr
Editor

Martin M. Hanczyc
Editor

Lone Ladegaard Laursen
Editor

Sarah Maurer
Editor

Daniel Merkle
Editor

Pierre-Alain Monnard
Editor

Kasper Stoy
Editor

Steen Rasmussen
Editor

Abstract

This paper describes the work carried out to develop EcoBot-
III, which is a robot with an artificial digestion system. The robot is powered by Microbial Fuel Cells (MFCs) and it is designed to collect food and water from the environment, digest the collected food and at the end of the digestion cycle, egest the waste. EcoBot-III operated successfully for 7 days when fed with anaerobic or pasteurized sludge, before mechanical failure required human intervention. Work is ongoing to improve the mechanics and thus extend the artificial agent’s operational lifetime.

Presentation Conference Type Conference Paper (Published)
Conference Name The 12th International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, ALIFE 2010
Start Date Aug 19, 2010
End Date Aug 23, 2010
Publication Date Aug 24, 2010
Journal Artificial Life XII
Print ISSN 0-262-29075-8
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Pages 733-740
Book Title Artificial Life XII: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, ALIFE 2010
ISBN 9780262290753
Keywords energy autonomy, microbial fuel cells, robotics, energy harvesting
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/976130
Publisher URL http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12433
Related Public URLs http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262290758chap131.pdf