A REVIEW OF FUEL CELL POWERED MOBILE ROBOTS

Abstract. Fuel cell is emerging as one of the most promising renewable energy technologies. Extensive researches on fuel cell technology and its applications are been conducted. This paper reviews the feasibility of fuel cell powered mobile robots. Fuel cell types, specifications, and characteristics are thoroughly explained. The concept of energetic autonomy of mobile robots and detailed description of the components required to convert conventional mobile robots to fuel cell powered mobile robots are discussed in this paper. Discussion on advantages and disadvantages of this system relative to conventional one are also addressed. Keywords: Fuel cell, mobile robot, renewable energy 1. INTRODUCTION A mobile robot is a mechanical device that performs useful work amount of energy with it in order to achieve a useful in a field application and that can transport itself under its own power. Examples vary in scale from milliwatts to megawatts. The field of mobile robotics places stringent demands on the power system. Energetic autonomy, or the ability to function for a useful operation time independent of any tether, refuelling, or recharging, is a driving force in a robot designed for a field application. robot designed to autonomously navigate a mountainous The device that enables mobile operation is the power system, defined here as the group of devices that store a quantity of transported energy and transform it at a desired rate into output energy, typically mechanical rotary or translational energy. operation time fails the second A power system is made up of two types of generalized components: the energy source, defined as a device or substance energy, and energy converters, defined as devices, which receive energy in one form as input and transform it into another form as output. the ground and need not be moved. For a typical lab scale mobile robot, a common power source is a conventional lead acid battery, which possesses engines but rather electrochemical devices and area need for lengthy process prior to utilization. This paper will review the application of fuel cell as the alternative power source and will discourse the comparison of these two systems as well as potential future researches in this field. Focus will be given to various components that made up the fuel cell system.