Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Humanoid Robot Actuators

firgelli.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 82 posts

Re: Humanoid Robot Actuators

#51

Post by blueblisters »

RaSoJo wrote: post #35

How can we trust this article or the company if the writer/so-called chief engineer decides to hide himself behind an AI avatar? From what I can understand this is the Robbie Dickson in question: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lessons-from-a-serial-ent_b_9... Nobody has a problem with companies using AI to edit articles, create images. But when even the writer is an AI persona, the trust factor gets destroyed.

You evaluate the merits of the content? From a high-level systems pov, the article is largely correct, even if some details might be missed / simplified

Re: Humanoid Robot Actuators

#52

Post by scotty79 »

I really like the idea of using two series elastic actuators in parallel on the same joint. This way motors acting in opposite direction can pre-tension the springs making the leg stiffer or softer. And if a lot of strength is needed they can act in the same direction summing their forces.

It should be fairly straightforward to control dynamically so you can use pretty much any motor and gearbox.

Re: Humanoid Robot Actuators

#53

Post by blueblisters »

vova_hn2 wrote: post #39

Probably a dumb question, because I know nothing about robotics, but: > The "Zero RPM" Problem > When a robot bends its knees to stand, the motor must constantly fight gravity. There is no skeletal structure to lock against. To an electric motor, holding a static load—known as stall torque—is the most punishing state possible. Why not just add some kind of brake that can fully or partially lock the joint?

Brakes are being added to actuators but they're more useful for static holds / locking than dynamic balancing. Standing even in humans is a dynamic balancing activity.

Re: Humanoid Robot Actuators

#54

Post by scotty79 »

AI that drew the diagram couldn't get it's neurons around how planetary screws in linear actuator should work.

Here's an actual schematic: https://ae-pic-a1.aliexpress-media.com/kf/Sd3fe9841e4ed4871b...

Why these screws are used instead of just threads? Because rolling friction is lower than sliding friction. You can use less or more of them trading friction for shock resistance.

Re: Humanoid Robot Actuators

#55

Post by epaga »

Loic wrote: post #37

Asking: As gpugreg remarked[0], this is AI slop to the point that it is impossible to trust anything from this article/blog post. As such, I flagged the submission. - I wonder, is it possible to give a reason to the flag? - Is flagging the submission without comments the right way to go? For me, it is important that slowly but surely it goes through that AI slop is not what is accepted here on HN. Yes to have whateve…

I also flagged it when I realized the video claimed to be someone it wasn't. Unacceptable in my mind.

Re: Humanoid Robot Actuators

#56

Post by Mars008 »

olig15 wrote: post #49
RaSoJo wrote: post #35

How can we trust this article or the company if the writer/so-called chief engineer decides to hide himself behind an AI avatar? From what I can understand this is the Robbie Dickson in question: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lessons-from-a-serial-ent_b_9... Nobody has a problem with companies using AI to edit articles, create images. But when even the writer is an AI persona, the trust factor gets destroyed.

I think at very least, the diagrams are AI generated too. > https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0554/0567/4694/files/strai... The middle component has teeth on the inside half way round, should be smooth on the inside. > https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0554/0567/4694/files/inver... 4 of the 5 orbiting threaded rollers are perpendicular to the screw thread, so wont do anything. > https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0554…

I wouldn't be surprised if article is actually AI generated summary from several sources.Guided by human.

It's a new phenomena. Recently got a book on agentic AI which looks like OpenAI docs with added generated water.

Re: Humanoid Robot Actuators

#57

Post by mattclarkdotnet »

thrownthatway wrote: post #48
bloak wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems that he wrote that in a book published in 1953, but it's weird, I find, that he was imagining a robot driving a car. I would have thought he would have imagined that cars would become robots well before there would be humanoid robots wanting to drive them. So by the time you have a humanoid robot wanting to drive a car it's just one robot talking to another robot, electronically. And knives and forks are for…

I need to get on to one of the prediction markets. I’m willing to bet we’ll have a humanoid robot that can drive a car before we have level 5 autonomous vehicles. And by can drive a car I mean a general purpose humanoid robot that can do basic household chores like move the car and wash it with a foaming brush and a hose. I don’t mean the robot will be capable of sitting in any regular car and doing level 5 autonomou…

So you’re wanting to bet that we’ll get humanoid robots capable of driving a dumb car at L4 before we get cars capable of L5? When we have no humanoid robots driving cars, and many L4 cars driving around? I’ll take that!

Re: Humanoid Robot Actuators

#58

Post by raphman »

russdill wrote: post #31
gpugreg wrote: post #27

This is AI slop and the article contains some of the worst illustrations I have ever seen. Most do not make any sense mechanically. Here are the worst ones: - The "orbiting threaded rollers" in figure 6 are not meshing with anything (not that they could, since they are orientated in the wrong direction). - The ball of the ball screw in figure 7 deforms the screw and the roller screw "meshes" with a flat surface. - Th…

The YouTube channel linked is more of the same. Just the absolute worst slop

Actually, most videos seem to be real, run-of-the-mill showcases of various actuators the company sells. However, the owner seems to have added quite stupid AI-generated preview images lately.
Post reply on HN