Anyone here working on hydrogen-powered industrial robots / AMRs / AGVs?

[u/CattleWorried7928]

Hi everyone,

I’m exploring hydrogen fuel cells for powering industrial robots, AMRs and AGVs.

I’d love to connect with anyone who has worked on this commercially, in research, or as a prototype — especially around fuel-cell/battery hybrids, hydrogen storage, power management, refuelling and real-world reliability.

If you’ve built or tested a hydrogen-powered robotic platform, I’d be very interested to hear about your experience and the biggest challenges you faced.

[u/Lazy-Seaweed2277]

Just use batteries. Fuel cells don’t make sense for robotics.

[u/CattleWorried7928 → u/Lazy-Seaweed2277]

Agreed for the majority of the robots. I was just looking at large scale autonomous robots which takes hours to charge based on the discharge rates , won't quick refuelling and few times of refuelling be an operational advantage.

[u/Mannerheim_Line → u/Lazy-Seaweed2277]

Walmart has gone all in on this technology converting nearly all of the forklifts in their fleet to hydrogen forklifts. Believe it or not – it has been a relatively easy conversion. Amazon replaced the forklift batteries at 11 warehouses with an alternate hydrogen power source.

[u/BuddingFarmer → u/Mannerheim_Line]

Forklifts are a great niche case for hydrogen. They use the same standard form factor of a lead acid forklift battery pack and replace it with tanks and stacks. Then they add steel or lead plates to bring the weight back up to match the original. Compared to the original batteries, they refuel in 5 mins and run all shift without fading performance.

However, the original batteries were lead acid. If we compared to modern lithium or even sodium batteries, I think the benefits are a little more difficult to justify. Lithium would be looking at charge times closer to 1 hr, not 8 like the old lead acids. You'd probably be able to keep up just charging on coffee breaks.

But for Amazon and Walmart, any down time is lost productivity so I can see why they have gone the fuel cell route.

[u/Mannerheim_Line → u/BuddingFarmer]

The only people that find it hard to justify the use of fuel cells are the Mask cult members. For them it is all solar panels and batteries cause that's how the cult leader said it should be. Of course it is only until Mask himself is using his kerosene powered jet for travelling or natural gas turbines for data centers. That'as when they find it's easy to justify the use of any fuel over batteries.

[u/CattleWorried7928 → u/[deleted]]

I was looking at a bigger industrial robot or unmanned ground vehicle . In small robots it's too expensive and big and will also effect the mobility of robot. I was looking at robots where battery size is in excess of 100 kgs and takes couple of hours to charge whereas the refuelling can be Xtremely quick with hydrogen saving time .

[u/I-Am-Darth]

Power density is the biggest limitation for fuel cells (watts/kg).

If the battery pack you would need has say a 10kw max output, but you only need 1kw, it might be fine, though cost justification might be difficult. if your power need is greater than about 10-20% of the battery rating, fuel cells may be heavier anyway.

On the point of cost, you may find that having two swappable batteries is cheaper than fuel cells and fueling infrastructure

[u/iqisoverrated]

What problem are you trying to solve that cannot be solved cheaper (and safer!) by batteries?

[u/CattleWorried7928 → u/iqisoverrated]

Faster Refueling

[u/iqisoverrated → u/CattleWorried7928]

With 6C Batteries we're already looking at 10 minute recharging. The time one could achieve gain is so minimal that it's not worth the added cost (and seafety issues).

With battery swaps - which are a real possibility for bots - hydrogen is already slower (or the same with hydrogen tank swaps)

I don't see where you can justify the vastly higher cost of hydrogen.

[u/CattleWorried7928 → u/iqisoverrated]

Fair criticism. My “faster refuelling” answer was too simplistic.

I’m not proposing hydrogen as a general replacement for batteries. I’m trying to identify narrower applications: long uninterrupted outdoor missions, sites with constrained charging infrastructure, or operations that already have a suitable hydrogen supply.

[u/lpetrich]

Is the robot a vehicle or a stationary-mount system? For a stationary mount, then hydrogen storage will not be much of a problem. But for a vehicle, one has the problem of also transporting the hydrogen's fuel tank.

A workaround would be to use the Fischer-Tropsch process to make methanol from hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Methanol has a boiling point of 64.7 C at one atmosphere, so it should be easy to store. Alternatively, one can make ammonia with the Haber-Bosch process, but it has a boiling point of -33.34 C. One does have to refrigerate to liquefy it, but not as much as hydrogen by a large margin.

[u/CattleWorried7928 → u/lpetrich]

We are currently look at UGVs .

[u/lpetrich → u/CattleWorried7928]

UGV's? AMR's? AGV's? I'm not familiar with those acronyms.

[u/CattleWorried7928 → u/lpetrich]

UGV stands for Unmanned Ground Vehicle , AGV stands for Automated Guided Vehicle, and AMR stands for Autonomous Mobile Robot