Hardware
A model can only do what its body allows. This chapter explains the hardware choices — actuation, hands, sensing, compute, power — and how each one constrains capability, cost and safety.
§Articles in this chapter
1 articleHumanoid robot anatomy: actuators, hands, sensors, compute
What is inside a humanoid robot: actuators and transmissions, hands, sensors, onboard compute and batteries — and how each limits capability and safety.
§Terms from this chapter
Full glossary →Autonomous mobile robot
A mobile robot that plans its own path through a facility using onboard sensing and a map, rather than following fixed guides such as tape or wires the way an automated guided vehicle does.
Degrees of freedom
The number of independent ways a mechanism can move. A typical industrial arm has six; a humanoid with dexterous hands can have forty or more.
End effector
The device at the end of a robot arm that interacts with the world: a gripper, suction cup, hand, welding torch or other tool. It is part of the robot application and must be included in its risk assessment.