can someone explain this to me?
why do people remove the gears from the Feetech servo on the main arm?
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Fangchong Han New
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Tom New
- Reducing Mechanical Resistance for Enhanced Manual Operability
As the "leader" component, the primary arm requires manual manipulation by users to generate demonstration trajectories (e.g., grasping, moving) for the follower arm's imitation learning. Gear removal substantially decreases mechanical resistance in the motor system, resulting in smoother articulation.
The STS3215 servo motor originally employed gear transmission for torque output. However, as the leader arm bears no physical load and solely records positional data, de-gearing allows effortless joint rotation while minimizing operator fatigue.
This modification enables more intuitive manipulation of the leader arm, facilitating higher-quality motion data acquisition and consequently improving imitation learning efficiency.
- Position Encoder-Centric Design Over Mechanical Transmission
The leader arm's core functionality lies in joint angle data acquisition rather than physical actuation. Post-gear removal, the integrated 12-bit magnetic encoder maintains precise positional feedback while eliminating gear-related inaccuracies.
LeRobot employs Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART) communication to map encoder data directly to follower arm motor control signals. Retaining gears risks introducing nonlinear errors (e.g., backlash, wear-induced deviations).
System calibration ensures positional consistency between leader and follower arms. Gear elimination simplifies this process to software-based compensation, removing mechanical transmission alignment requirements.
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Keroro X New
so from what I know, it's because they're only using the encoder to read the servo position and not actually driving it. That's why the gears get taken out. But honestly, I think leaving the gears on makes the whole thing handle smoother when operating.
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