Actuators have been used in robotics since the field's invention in the early 1950s; however those original robots were created for research and industrial applications. It has only been in the last few decades that the technology has advanced far enough to put the power of robotics into the hands of home users and hobbyists. There are many factors that contributed to hobbyist robotics recent emergence, but the most potent was simply cost. As these technologies enter the mainstream they become much more accessible to the average person, and this turnover is happening faster and faster. In 1956 (the year the first industrial robot was built) the idea of owning your own robot was as outlandish as the idea of owning your own computer. Fast forward these nearly 60 years and robots are building our cars, vacuuming our floors, and entertaining our children.

Actuators in Hobby Robotics

None of this innovation would be possible without steady improvements in actuator technology; this leads to both a reduction in actuator price and an increase in capacity and feature set. Clever hobbyists around the world are taking advantage of the affordability of this technology to make their own actuator based robotic projects. Some applications include:

• Robot Legs: The power, portability, and leverage of a linear actuator makes them ideal for powering bipedal robot hips and knees. Not just bipedal robots either, linear actuators have seen use in hexapedal and octopedal robots as well. The actuators work so well they're even helping robots play soccer!.
• Robot Arms: It doesn't matter if you're making an assembly line car-building robot or just something to arm-wrestle with in your spare time*, linear actuators make a great 'muscle' for robotic arms. (* Note: Please don't arm wrestle with an actuator powered robot arm since you will likely get hurt)
• Robot Heads and Sensor Arrays: Much like humans, robots need to move their heads and by extension 'eyes' around in order to see properly. Thanks to their very exact positioning control linear actuators are an ideal solution. Don't believe us? Check out this customer-submitted video using actuators from Progressive Automations: RC Wall-E Head Demo

This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, since there are many more applications for linear actuators in robots, many we haven't even thought of yet! If you've got a great project using our linear actuators or mini actuators let us know and we can showcase it on our site.