the.com/actuator
the muscle that turns a computer's nagging into actual movement.
means A device that converts an electrical, hydraulic, or pneumatic signal into physical motion, turning a control command into an actual mechanical action.
from From Latin 'actus' (a doing, a driving — the past participle of 'agere,' to drive or act), the same root that gives us 'act,' 'agent,' and 'action.' English built 'actuate' (to put into action) in the 1500s, and 'actuator' followed as the agent noun — literally 'the thing that does.'
- name origin
- From Latin actus, meaning a doing or motion
- in your car
- Locks doors, adjusts mirrors, snaps the throttle
- types
- Electric, hydraulic, pneumatic, even shape-memory alloys
- hard drives
- Voice-coil actuators swing heads thousands of times per second
- robotics
- No actuators means a robot that only thinks