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by gene-h 2534 days ago
And unfortunately, their operation is thermally based. This means they are inherently inefficient and as you scale up fine control becomes more difficult due to increased thermal mass.
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Not to mention it would be susceptible to environmental changes. A prosthetic device would spaz out going from an air conditioned room out into a hot day, for example.
I'm sure there are modest situations where something that can lift 650 times it's weight is more valuable than the thermal limitations. Or maybe super-cold environments?
Indeed - the cooling requirements of maglev don't seem to have prohibited it from existing
Pneumatic air muscles are in the same strength to weight range - for example, the Shadow 30mm version is ~470 minimum. They can also be simply manufactured today, cycle very quickly, and are easy to control.
Pneumatic actuation is also very powerful, and has been used for a while in rockets and are relatively reliable, even in various extreme conditions.