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Home on Robot Daycare
Personal blog · robot-daycare.com/postshardwaresystems
Home on Robot Daycare is a personal blog at robot-daycare.com about hardware and systems. Since 2026, 5 different Hacker News readers have linked it 12 times, most often “The Mini Cheetah Robot (2019)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-19, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (2) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog for technical writing on robot actuators and small running robots, including motor characterization and motor scaling laws, by Ben Katz, designer of the MIT Mini Cheetah.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 2 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Engineering contraptions
Most-linked posts?
- The Mini Cheetah Robot (2019)2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2026-03-11
- Mini Cheetah Clone Teardown (2022)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2026-03-18
What Hacker News says?
[1] The author of the posted article, Ben Katz, designed the MIT Mini Cheetah during his master’s program. His thesis has become very popular in the robotics community as a reference for actuator design, and it is freely available online. Thesis: A low cost modular actuator for dynamic robots https://dspace.mit.edu/entities/publication/b85069e2-f1cd-47... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmViQ1T03Rk [2] Unitree, LIMX…
Comment linking /posts/2022-11-02-mini-cheetah-clone-teardown/
on “Motor Characterization for Small Running Robots (2016)”Submitted Motor Characterization for Small Running Robots (2016) as a story · 51 points
HN discussionSorry for going off topic. "Electric Motor Scaling Laws and Inertia in Robot Actuators" by Ben Katz who designed the MIT Mini Cheetah in 2018 is very well known in the legged robotics community. His master’s thesis on actuator design is also widely referenced. During the COVID period, some Chinese companies even sold variants of actuators inspired by the Mini Cheetah design. Aaed Musa has also mentioned in some of h…
Comment linking /posts/2019-12-16-the-mini-cheetah-robot/
on “Electric motor scaling laws and inertia in robot actuators”Submitted Good Bonds as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Electric motor scaling laws and inertia in robot actuators as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Mini Cheetah Robot(2019) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Making fast, pressure-sealed thermocouple probes as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Rubik's Contraption as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Mini Cheetah Clone Teardown (2022) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Mini Cheetah Robot (2019) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Zipp 2001 Restoration as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Balancing Leg(2023) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion