1P2-W06 Autonomous Distributed Sensor Robots Using Insects : Driving Wireless Sensor Powered by Insect-mountable Biofuel Cell

Abstract

This paper proposes an autonomous distributed sensor robot with an insect-mountable biofuel cell (imBFC) which generates electric power from trehalose found in insect hemolymph and a wireless sensor device. First, we evaluated electrochemical reactions of the anode in 100 mM glucose solution and the imBFC. Then, we measured the performance of the glucose BFC and imBFC and the maximum power of 76.8 μW (65.6 μW/cm^2) and 50.2 μW (42.9 μW/cm^2) was obtained. Finally, we attempted to drive a wireless sensor device consisted of a DC-DC converter and a radio sensor module powered by the imBFC and succeeded in driving the wireless sensor device. These results indicate the possibility for developing the autonomous distributed sensor robot without external power sources.