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About

Ioannis Ieropoulos is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of robotics, biological systems, and sustainable energy, best known for his groundbreaking work on Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC)-powered autonomous robots. His research has fundamentally advanced the concept of energetic autonomy in machines — the idea that robots can harvest energy directly from their environment, much like living organisms. Through the celebrated EcoBot series (EcoBot-II, EcoBot-III, and beyond), Ieropoulos demonstrated that bacterial cultures could serve as onboard power sources, enabling robots to self-sustain through a form of artificial metabolism and symbiosis — work that has collectively garnered hundreds of citations, with his 2006 paper "Energetically Autonomous Robots: Food for Thought" alone accumulating 141 citations. His contributions extend to underwater MFC systems functioning as artificial gills, MFC-powered artificial muscles, swimming robots like the Row-bot, and biodegradable soft robotics that address end-of-life sustainability challenges. Across more than a decade of research, Ieropoulos has shaped an entirely new paradigm in robotics and artificial life — one where machines metabolize, adapt, and ultimately dissolve back into the environment from which they feed.