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Comment by Terr_ | Hacker News Reader

I imagine that this stuff will be great for prototyping algorithms and figuring out good applications/requirements, but eventually (like when stuff has to be mass-produced) you'll see physical structures coming back in.

Either gearwork or biologically-inspired designs, replacing some flexible electric rules and brawn with structures that have rules and brawn "baked in".

Sort of like how your knees aren't "soft-coded" for a particular set of angles, it's an emergent property of a system shaped by a particular use.

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The Issus genus of jumping insects (planthoppers)[0] have a gear mechanism connecting their rear legs. The gear synchronizes the motion of the two back legs; thereby reducing 'yaw rotation' when jumping[1]. The gear communicates motion faster than a purely neurological system.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issus_(genus)#Gear_mechanism

[1] "Interacting Gears Synchronize Propulsive Leg Movements in a Jumping Insect," by M. Burrows et al Science, 2013.

I don't know about that.

This platform can be fairly cheap in mass production. The legs are really cheap. No gears. And just two motors per leg. No extra force sensors, just the control electronics.

But if you added (say) a spring into the linkages, the rest-position could be tuned mechanically to be more energy efficient (e.g: zero power). The effect of the spring could be backed out in software.

But it's not until people have played with the use-cases, etc, that one really needs to think about efficiency in terms of battery life.

But if you added (say) a spring into the linkages, the rest-position could be tuned mechanically to be more energy efficient (e.g: zero power).

That might help with one particular gait, but I think it wouldn't give as much benefit for a system as flexible as this, which can run, hop, trot, and more.

And the spring itself would need to be modeled, and would make the position and force measurements less sensitive. That's why I don't think it would be a net win.

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