Brushless motors spin fast with low torque and need gearing to deliver slow forceful movement. At automotive scales, the mechanical gearing overheads are insignificant but at humanoid robot scale it’s a different story. Mechanical gearing can’t achieve the full range of movement needed.
Our innovation is to re-use the magnetic field produced by the motor to provide integrated, frictionless and highly efficient gearing, in a Sarcomere Inspired Linear Actuator [SILA]. Our experimental rig has lifted 7g across an air gap, demonstrating SILA’s underpinning principle.
