An Oxygen-Diffusion Cathode MFC Model for Simulation of Energy-Autonomous Robots

• We present a macroscopic mathematical model of energy generation dynamics in oxygen-diffusion cathode microbial fuel cells (ODC-MFCs). The model is phenomenologically derived on the basis of actual experimental data, obtained by a battery of ODC-MFCs connected in series that supplied energy to a physical robot prototype. Due to its limited computational overhead, the simple set of equations is particularly suitable for the study of robot adaptive behavior under naturalistic energyconstraints in computer simulations, and as a tool for the design and optimization of stack configurations of large sets of MFCs.

Keyword

Microbial fuel cells

adaptive behavior

energy management

artificial metabolism

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

ovr (subject category)