TY - GEN
T1 - Lithium hydride powered PEM fuel cells for long-duration small mobile robotic missions
AU - Thangavelautham, Jekanthan
AU - Strawser, Daniel
AU - Cheung, Mei Yi
AU - Dubowsky, Steven
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - This paper reports on a study to develop power supplies for small mobile robots performing long duration missions. It investigates the use of fuel cells to achieve this objective, and in particular Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells. It is shown through a representative case study that, in theory, fuel cell based power supplies will provide much longer range than the best current rechargeable battery technology. It also briefly discusses an important limitation that prevents fuel cells from achieving their ideal performance, namely a practical method to store their fuel (hydrogen) in a form that is compatible with small mobile field robots. A very efficient fuel storage concept based on water activated lithium hydride (LiH) is proposed that releases hydrogen on demand. This concept is very attractive because water vapor from the air is passively extracted or waste water from the fuel cell is recycled and transferred to the lithium hydride where the hydrogen is "stripped" from water and is returned to the fuel cell to form more water. This results in higher hydrogen storage efficiencies than conventional storage methods. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
AB - This paper reports on a study to develop power supplies for small mobile robots performing long duration missions. It investigates the use of fuel cells to achieve this objective, and in particular Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells. It is shown through a representative case study that, in theory, fuel cell based power supplies will provide much longer range than the best current rechargeable battery technology. It also briefly discusses an important limitation that prevents fuel cells from achieving their ideal performance, namely a practical method to store their fuel (hydrogen) in a form that is compatible with small mobile field robots. A very efficient fuel storage concept based on water activated lithium hydride (LiH) is proposed that releases hydrogen on demand. This concept is very attractive because water vapor from the air is passively extracted or waste water from the fuel cell is recycled and transferred to the lithium hydride where the hydrogen is "stripped" from water and is returned to the fuel cell to form more water. This results in higher hydrogen storage efficiencies than conventional storage methods. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84864479933&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1109/ICRA.2012.6224752
DO - 10.1109/ICRA.2012.6224752
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84864479933
SN - 9781467314039
T3 - Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
SP - 415
EP - 422
BT - 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2012
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2012
Y2 - 14 May 2012 through 18 May 2012
ER -