* Posts by McDuderson

1 publicly visible post • joined 18 Oct 2013

Terminator-style robot busts leg in martial arts demo mishap

McDuderson

Re: power source...

Keep in mind that the energy content in fat is measured as chemical energy released in the form of thermal energy based on combustion. So humans convert that chemical energy to motion at 18-26% efficiency. The robot is using electricity to generate motion, which is already a very high quality form of energy. For 1 J of power from electricity, you'll typically need to combust 2.5 J of chemical energy in some fuel to drive a heat engine (Brayton or Rankine cycle), so to properly compare the efficiency, you need to start from a chemical energy source in both cases and not give the robot the advantage of a electrical-to-motion efficiency while discussing human's chemical-to-motion efficiency.