title: Physarum polycephalum: towards a biological controller.
abstract: Microbial fuels cells (MFCs) are bio-electrochemical transducers that generate energy from the metabolism of electro-active microorganisms. The organism Physarum polycephalum is a slime mould, which has demonstrated many novel and interesting properties in the field of unconventional computation, such as route mapping between nutrient sources, maze solving and nutrient balancing. It is a motile, photosensitive and oxygen-consuming organism, and is known to be symbiotic with some, and antagonistic with other microbial species. In the context of artificial life, the slime mould would provide a biological mechanism (along with the microbial community) for controlling the performance and behaviour of artificial systems (MFCs, robots). In the experiments it was found that P. polycephalum did not generate significant amounts of power when inoculated in the anode. However, when P. polycephalum was introduced in the cathode of MFCs, a statistically significant difference in power output was observed.
authors.affiliation: Bristol BioEnergy Centre, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK. Electronic address: benjamin.taylor@brl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Centre for Unconventional Computing, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK. Electronic address: andrew.adamatzky@uwe.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Adamatzky
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological, Biomedical and Analytical Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK. Electronic address: john.greenman@uwe.ac.uk.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Greenman
authors.affiliation: Bristol BioEnergy Centre, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK. Electronic address: ioannis.ieropoulos@brl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ieropoulos
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources / Q000469:parasitology*; D004566:Electrodes / Q000469:parasitology*; D016839:Physarum polycephalum / Q000378:metabolism*
keywords: Cathode efficiency; Microbial fuel cells; Robotic control; Slime mould