Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
Neo is a mechanically human-safe robot. This means that a patented solution has been invented to make Neo capable of interacting safely with humans in an uncontrolled residential environment. Indeed, most robots operating in factories perform repetitive tasks in highly controlled environments (e.g., lifting heavy objects from one conveyor belt to another). These are programmed tasks where it would be dangerous for humans to inadvertently come between the robot’s task and its movement path. This would be dangerous because industrial robots are unequipped with means to react to the unexpected presence of a human. The high-gear-ratio motors driving industrial robotic movement would require a combination of dozens of sensors, each with complex control algorithms, which would be far too costly to enable the robots to safely interact with humans. Thus, in an industrial setting, a human could not push a robotic arm driven by a high-gear-ratio [1:200] motor, because even the smallest movement would create huge resistance from the motor, termed back-drivability, which is essentially impossible. According to patent specification: the insensitivity of a driving motor system scales with the square of the gear ratio.
The human-safe patented solution invented for Neo, the 1X housekeeper robot, is a cable-driven, very high-torque, direct-drive [1:1 gear ratio] motor with a Halbach magnetic array structure. This patented design lightens the weight of the motor, making limb movement far more accurate, and far better adapted to humanoid-sized robotic limb movement. Most importantly, the patented low-gear-ratio design enables humans to interact with the robot. In other words, a human can apply force and influence the movement of a robot’s limbs, without creating resistance, thus preventing the robot from harming a human. Additionally, direct human interaction with the robot’s motorized limbs reduces the need for costly sensors and their associated algorithms, to control the robot's limb movement.
The human-safe motor design invention embodied in Neo, the 1X household robot, is recited in a family of four patents, including the US utility patent application US20200083763, titled Human-like direct drive robot. The inventors on record are Phuong Nguyen and Bernt Ølivind Børnich, founder and CEO of 1X*, the company that produces and markets NEO, in Hayward, California. The patent application was published March 12th, 2020, and abandoned.
Below, the extracted patent Figure 6, together with the Abstract of the invention. The patent Figure 6 depicts a human-like robot 400, and more specifically, the robot’s torso 410. The robot's torso 410 further indexes two upper limbs 404, elbow joints 408, and one of the llmb portions 406, comprising a hollow sleeve that houses an (undepicted) ball bearing system for the cable system that drives the transmission of motor torque to the limbs.
An image of Neo’s fingers, stripped of their 3D polymer “skin” and knitted cover, is also included below the abstract.
The present disclosure relates to a motor, in particular a compact, lightweight, and high-torque motor. The rotor comprises a Halbach array magnet structure in which the projected magnetic field is directed toward the rotation axis of the motor and the stator comprises a plurality of poles within the Halbach array. The individual magnets making up the Halbach array have a thickness in the radial direction, with respect to the rotation axis, which is determined to be the minimum thickness required to stop demagnetization of the magnets when the maximum current to generate peak torque output of the motor is driven through the stator at the maximum expected temperature at which the motor will be used.
(Abstract US20200083763A1)
Note
* Former Halodi Robotics AS, in Norway.
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