Animatronic robots may seem simple, but in reality, they require complex engineering. Creating believable, lifelike movements is no simple task, and it requires extreme precision and coordination. That’s why high-quality servo drives play a critical role in believable animatronics: servo drives allow for the consistency and precision necessary to create motions that mimic living things.

The difficulty of animatronics engineering speaks to the complexity of life itself. For example, think of how you move your arm: it doesn’t happen in crude on/off gestures, with your arm jerking from one position to the next. Instead, it’s a fluid, graceful motion, with muscles making thousands of adjustments per second to accelerate and decelerate your body until you reach the desired position. When recreating that using robotics, even the smallest variations in speed and positioning can break the illusion, and high-quality servo drives help keep it intact.

Animatronics also add unique constraints to the engineering process. Animatronic robots often need to look like humans, animals, or imaginary creatures, which means the robotics need to fit into confined, irregular spaces. High-quality servo drives can deliver high output power in a small container, allowing for realistic movements despite the small space. For example, our Single Axis Mite and new Atom servo drive modules deliver powerful outputs with a footprint as small as a matchbook and smaller custom sizes available.