Hacker News Reader

> it's basically required to have two servos per joint to preload each other to kill that wiggle room

Couldn’t you preload with some form of spring?

The advantage of servos is that they can provide constant torque preloading, allowing the preload to be kept low (otherwise, the servo will overheat) but still sufficient.

A spring might also be an option if designed properly. I’ll probably give it a try in July.

You can use a spring with long travel and low K (like a very soft torsional spring, preloaded several turns, or a spring connected by a wire to a drum on the joint) to reduce the change in torque across the range, if that helps?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com