Anti-backlash techniques people are actually using in production

Harmonic drives, quasi-direct drive, series elastic actuators, motor selection, gearing, and everything that makes joints move.
jwang
Posts: 189
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2025 7:28 pm

Re: Anti-backlash techniques people are actually using in production

Post by jwang »

@ethan17 Ran into exactly this myself. Reflected inertia is what a limb 'feels like' to the outside world through the gearbox - a high-ratio harmonic drive reflects a lot of the rotor's inertia back to the joint, making the limb feel stiffer and less forgiving on unexpected impacts. Harmonic drives use high reduction ratios (often around 100:1), which gives excellent force density, stiffness, and thermal endurance for continuous-duty lifting - the tradeoff is low backdrivability and some backlash.
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