Maker Brandon Lai is working toward building a humanoid robot, and that means engineering custom actuators from scratch. An actuator is the mechanical component that converts electrical signals into motion—essentially the robot's muscles. Rather than sourcing off-the-shelf parts, Lai designed his own and is currently testing his second-generation iteration. According to Hackaday, his approach shows how individual makers are pushing the boundaries of robot development, tackling challenges that once required corporate R&D budgets.

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