Microbial fuel cell driven behavioral dynamics in robot simulations

Montebelli, Alberto; Lowe, Robert; Ieropoulos, Ioannis; Melhuish, Chris; Greenman, John; Ziemke, Tom

Abstract

With the present study we report the first application of a recently proposed model for realistic microbial fuel cells (MFCs) energy generation dynamics, suitable for robotic simulations with minimal and extremely limited computational overhead. A simulated agent was adapted in order to engage in a viable interaction with its environment. It achieved energy autonomy by maintaining viable levels of the critical variables of MFCs, namely cathodic hydration and anodic substrate biochemical energy. After unsupervised adaptation by genetic algorithm, these crucial variables modulate the behavioral dynamics expressed by viable robots in their interaction with the environment. The analysis of this physically rooted and self-organized dynamic action selection mechanism constitutes a novel practical contribution of this work. We also compare two different viable strategies, a self-organized continuous and a pulsed behavior, in order to foresee the possible cognitive implications of such biological-mechatronics hybrid symbionts in a novel scenario of ecologically grounded energy and motivational autonomy.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (Published)
• Conference Name: 12th International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems, ALIFE 2010
• Start Date: Aug 19, 2010
• End Date: Aug 23, 2010
• Acceptance Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Dec 9, 2020
• Publisher: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press (MIT Press)
• Pages: 749-756
• Book Title: Artificial Life XII: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems
• ISBN: 9780262290753
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6804575
• Publisher URL: https://alife.org/conference/alife-12/