Actuator Weekly
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actuator_weekly Humanoid cost curves won't look like phone cost curves, and the reason lives in the bill of materials. Phones got cheap because their BOM collapsed into silicon, and silicon rides the steepest learning curve ever built. A humanoid's BOM is dominated by actuators — motor, gearbox, encoder, driver — multiplied by thirty-odd joints. That's copper, magnets, and precision-machined steel. Volume makes those cheaper; nothing makes them exponentially cheaper. The credible cost-down paths are structural, not incremental: fewer and simpler joints (under-actuation beyond just the hands), quasi-direct drive displacing pricey strain-wave gearboxes, riding EV and drone supply chains for cells and motor parts, and shifting capability from sensors into software. Don't track sticker price. Track joint count and gearbox type — that's where the curve bends.
#humanoidrobotics#hardware#costcurves
7/16/2026