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What Makes an Actuator Company That Builds Its Own Robots Different?

2026-08-12

The robotics industry is moving beyond its research and development phase into full-scale commercialization and mass production. As humanoids and other robots capable of diverse joint movements emerge, the importance of drive technology is growing as well.

Actuators, in particular, are the key components that generate a robot’s movement, directly affecting not only performance but also manufacturing cost and overall quality. As a result, competitiveness in the robotics industry is expanding beyond finished-product performance to how much core component technology, such as actuators, a company holds.

This shift is also changing how robot development takes place. In the past, robot manufacturers typically sourced actuators from external suppliers to build finished products. Recently, however, companies with their own actuator technology have begun developing robot platforms directly.

This is not simply an effort to expand into robot development as a new business area. It can be seen as a strategy to validate actuator performance by applying it to real equipment, then feeding the data and experience gained back into product development.

When an actuator company develops robots directly, it can manage core drive technology on its own and validate actuator performance through the robots it builds. In this piece, we’ll look at the strengths of this development approach.

What Makes An Actuator Company That Builds Its Own Robots Different?

Drive components make up 40-60% of a robot’s BOM?

Most robots, including service robots and multi-joint robots, require actuators to generate movement. The more joints a robot has and the more varied its movements need to be, the greater the number of actuators required.

Humanoids are a good example. Because they need to walk, maintain balance, and move their arms and fingers, humanoids use a large number of actuators. Some humanoid robots use around 25 to 35 actuators throughout the body, and dozens of small actuators can be needed in the hands alone to reproduce hand movements.

Actuator Company 2 미래 로봇 시대를 주도하는 스마트 액추에이터

According to McKinsey’s analysis, drive components, including actuators, account for roughly 40 to 60% of a robot’s BOM, or bill of materials. That share is high even compared with sensing and computing components such as cameras, lidar, and processors.

In the mass-production stage especially, being able to develop and manufacture actuators in house, which carry a large share of the cost, becomes an important competitive advantage. When actuators are sourced externally, manufacturing costs vary depending on the price, specifications, and supply terms set by the supplier, and design flexibility can also be limited.

Companies with their own actuator technology, on the other hand, can design drive-unit specifications to match a robot’s required performance and manage the entire production process, allowing for more flexibility in both manufacturing cost and design. This also helps maintain stable product quality and production conditions during mass production, and makes it easier to adjust products quickly to meet market demand.

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The Virtuous Cycle of Actuator Technology Starting in Robot Development

Another reason actuator company develop robots directly is that doing so lets them check product performance in the environment where real equipment actually moves, and then apply the experience gained from that process back into technology development.

Dedicated test equipment can measure an actuator’s output, durability, and other performance metrics under fixed conditions. In an actual robot, however, the size and direction of the load keep changing with walking, posture shifts, and repeated motion, and drive conditions also vary from joint to joint. These are variables that test equipment alone struggles to reproduce.

This is why it matters to apply actuators to real robots and run them repeatedly, checking under which conditions performance changes occur and what needs improvement. An actuator company that develops its own robots can feed the data gathered through this process back into product design and performance improvement, then apply the improved actuator to the robot again for validation, building a virtuous cycle of technology development.

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Actuator Technology Validated on Robots, Built into the BCSA V4

We apply this same approach in our own actuator development process. We have developed actuators based on our own cycloidal reduction technology, and by directly developing robot platforms such as quadruped walking robots and humanoids, we have incorporated the drive conditions and requirements of real equipment into our product design.

Actuator Company 5 미래 로봇 시대를 주도하는 스마트 액추에이터 — Check out Bonsystems’ robot manufacturing projects.

Considering real operating environments, the biggest need turned out to be securing internal design space within the robot joint. Since wiring and sensors are placed around the joint along with the drive unit, a larger drive unit means more constraints on available design space. To address this, the BCSA V4 uses a pinless structure that removes the roller pins from the cycloidal reduction structure, reducing the number of internal components and allowing a thinner actuator shaft, which improves space efficiency.

Also, when different joints, such as a humanoid’s arms and legs, require different amounts of torque, each joint needs drive specifications suited to its own characteristics. The BCSA V4 can be configured with various reduction ratios using the same housing, so actuator specifications can be selected individually to match each joint’s load conditions and motion characteristics.

Developed with these requirements in mind, the BCSA V4 has been applied to in-house platforms such as AGV, AMR, and walking robot, where its performance and durability are being validated under a range of load and repeated-motion conditions. The data and development experience gathered from actual operation are fed back into actuator design and performance improvement, helping raise the overall quality of the product.

Going forward, we will continue to use data gathered from our own robot platforms to improve actuator performance and product quality, and to expand our actuator lineup to meet the needs of next-generation robot development. If you’re looking for drive technology validated in real robot development and a reliable actuator solution, we invite you to check out our BCSA series.

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FAQ

Q. How much does the actuator affect a robot’s manufacturing cost?

Actuators are the core drive components that generate a robot’s movement, and the more joints a robot has, the more actuators it needs. Drive-related components, including actuators, account for roughly half of the total component cost, which is a significant share. As a result, the unit price and supply terms of actuators can be an important factor in determining a robot’s overall manufacturing cost.

Q. What competitive advantage can an actuator company gain through direct robot development?

When a company with core drive technology develops its own robots, it can directly check the robot’s structure and joint-by-joint requirements while adjusting specifications as needed, and use the data gathered during actual operation to improve its actuators. This allows requirements that arise during development to be reflected more quickly than in cases where the company uses externally supplied components.

Q. What does applying actuators to real robots mean for performance validation?

Dedicated test equipment can confirm basic performance such as torque, durability, and heat generation under fixed load and speed conditions. In real operating environments, however, variables that are hard to check with test equipment can arise, such as impact from walking motion or changing load conditions. In other words, further validation under a range of real operating conditions, by applying the actuator to an actual robot, is necessary to improve its overall quality.

Q. What advantages does the BCSA V4 offer when designing a robot?

The BCSA series is an actuator designed with a slim, high-torque structure that delivers the necessary drive performance even within limited joint space. This reduces the space the drive unit takes up inside the robot, making space use more efficient and broadening design options. It can also be configured with various reduction ratios within a single platform, so even when torque requirements differ from joint to joint, as with humanoids, the right specification can be selected for each drive unit.

Q. What technology does Bonsystems develop?

Bonsystems develops reducers and actuators based on cycloidal reduction technology. We validate drive performance by applying our own actuators to real platforms such as quadruped walking robots and humanoids, and we continue to advance our technology by feeding the requirements and data gathered during robot development back into product development. Building on this, we are continuously expanding our actuator lineup to meet the requirements of next-generation robot platforms.