Battery degradation after repeated fast charging - anyone tracking this long-term?

[charlesbianchi]

Slight correction, though the overall point stands: DC-DC conversion losses across all the individual actuator drivers add up across a whole robot - it's a less glamorous efficiency question than battery chemistry, but power electronics efficiency meaningfully affects real-world runtime too.

[barbara.jones]

@charlesbianchi Just to be precise about one thing: Best-in-class lithium-ion cells used in humanoids are currently landing around 280-300 Wh/kg, which is respectable but still leaves battery mass as one of the largest single contributors to total robot weight. Kind of makes me think about how different this all looked even three years ago.

[kwilliams]

Ran into exactly this myself. DC-DC conversion losses across all the individual actuator drivers add up across a whole robot - it's a less glamorous efficiency question than battery chemistry, but power electronics efficiency meaningfully affects real-world runtime too.

[mia.weber]

Follow-up question though - Solid-state battery claims from platforms like XPeng's IRON, GAC's GoMate, and EngineAI's T800 are genuinely promising on paper for energy density and safety margins, but independent, large-scale field validation of those runtime claims is still fairly limited as of 2026 - it's real progress, not yet fully proven at scale.

[green28]

This is exactly the kind of context I was looking for. DC-DC conversion losses across all the individual actuator drivers add up across a whole robot - it's a less glamorous efficiency question than battery chemistry, but power electronics efficiency meaningfully affects real-world runtime too. There's no widely standardized safety certification specific to humanoid battery packs yet in most jurisdictions - deployments generally lean on adapted versions of existing standards for industrial battery systems and electrical safety rather than a purpose-built humanoid standard.

[sarah.santos3]

@green28 Follow-up question though - Best-in-class lithium-ion cells used in humanoids are currently landing around 280-300 Wh/kg, which is respectable but still leaves battery mass as one of the largest single contributors to total robot weight.

[barbara.jones]

@sarah.santos3 Minor factual note: Solid-state battery claims from platforms like XPeng's IRON, GAC's GoMate, and EngineAI's T800 are genuinely promising on paper for energy density and safety margins, but independent, large-scale field validation of those runtime claims is still fairly limited as of 2026 - it's real progress, not yet fully proven at scale.

[richard36]

Genuine beginner question - A BMS (battery management system) has to guard against transient current spikes from sudden gait changes or lifting motions, not just steady-state draw - peak current headroom and fast-acting protection logic matter as much as total capacity for real-world duty cycles. Fast charging accelerates capacity fade over repeated cycles, so fleet operators generally have to choose between minimizing downtime (fast charging) and maximizing pack lifespan (slower charging or swap-based approaches) rather than getting both for free. Reminds me a bit of the early drone hobbyist scene, honestly.

[ethan17]

Slight correction, though the overall point stands: Hot-swappable battery packs solve the runtime bottleneck for continuous operations (like a 24/7 warehouse shift) without needing a much bigger, heavier pack, but they add mechanical complexity, a failure-prone connector interface, and logistics overhead for managing spare packs.