The paper deals with dynamics and control of a special type of mobile robot designed to act as a small platform to carry sensing devices or actuators in an environment where stability of the platform is critical, like in surveying unstructured hostile industrial environment or exploring other planets, or simply being a part of a human place, like office or home, which has not been designed for mobile machines. The spherical construction offers extraordinary motion properties in cases where turning over or falling down are risks for the robot to continue its motion. Also it has full capability to recover from collisions with obstacles or another robots traveling in the environment.

An electrochemical model for a microbial fuel cell process is proposed here. The model was set up on the basis of the experimental results and analysis of biochemical and electrochemical processes. Simulation of the process shows that the model describes the process reasonably well. The analysis of model simulation illustrates bow the current output depends on the substrate concentration, mediator concentration and other main variables. The relationship between the current output and over-voltage is revealed from the modelling study.

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WorkPartner is the prototype of a lightweight human-like mobile service robot designed to work interactively with humans in an outdoor environment. The tasks are similar to those a human can do and the robot may replace or work together with him/her. Mobility is based on a hybrid system, which combines the benefits of both legs and wheels to provide good terrain negotiating capability and large velocity range on variable ground. The robot is powered by a hybrid power system with electrical actuating and energy storage in the form of gasoline. The robot is equipped with a human-like two-hand manipulator. The long-term goal is to develop an adaptive and learning robot, which can carry different tools and work interactively with humans. The user or operator can be physically present on the same site as the robot and communicate with it by using speech and gestures, or he can use telepresence from a distant place and communicate via the Internet. In each case, communication takes place via a new type of user interface based on multimedia and cognition. In this paper we describe the mechatronic structure, the functional subsystems and motion control principles of the robot, as well as discuss the challenges of the development project.