Humanoid Powered by Linux

lems1 was among the avalanche of people who submitted this Linux powered Humanoid. The website has pictures and videos if you're curious. We're not exactly worrying about him seeking out the blue fairy or anything, but its nifty.

Comments

Motors and Gears

[Reality Master 101]

Whenever robots like this come up, the actuators always seem to use motors and gears. I've often that using that method is rather limiting, since they are very bulky.

Are there any good methods for more of a muscle-type actuator? Something very narrow that contracts. It seems like if you had something simple and cheap enough, you could use lots of them to give much better mobility.

I'm guessing there isn't anything really good, otherwise people would do it that way. Still, could you have some telescoping rod kind of thing with a coil to contract it? You wouldn't even need to go both directions -- just do what a muscle does, and wait for the opposing actuator to move it back out. It seems like there has to be something simpler that works better than motors and gears.