/Tech2h ago

Interactive Demo Explains Planetary Cycloidal and Strain-Wave Gears in Robotics

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Gears are the "muscles" of robotics; but with so many AI/ML folks getting into robotics now, you may not know what people mean when they say cycloid/strain wave/planetary gear, and, more importantly why they matter

What are the advantages and disadvantages? What actually ARE these things?

I made this over the weekend to try to help provide an intuition: https://cpaxton.github.io/gears/index.html

Probably has some mistakes as I am no mechanical engineer but I think it's useful

6:46 AM · Jun 30, 2026 · 128 Views

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Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

Many common humanoids like the unitree g1 use cheap, reliable planetary gears; but industrial robots tend to use cycloids or harmonic drive/strain-wave reducers instead.

The pluses and minuses also make a bit more sense once you can play around with the actual mechanisms - cycloids are heavier, but more shock resistant (just look at them for why!). Planetaries are cheaper (simple mechanisms, less material).

Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

What are the advantages and disadvantages? What actually ARE these things?

I made this over the weekend to try to help provide an intuition: https://cpaxton.github.io/gears/index.html

Probably has some mistakes as I am no mechanical engineer but I think it's useful

2h7100

Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

All vibe coded with composer 2.5

Chris Paxton@chris_j_paxton

What are the advantages and disadvantages? What actually ARE these things?

I made this over the weekend to try to help provide an intuition: https://cpaxton.github.io/gears/index.html

Probably has some mistakes as I am no mechanical engineer but I think it's useful

2h4800