Tesla - Optimus

I worked on the Actuator team at Tesla, which is developing the Optimus Humanoid Robot.

I was tasked with modifying the design of the linear actuators to enhance the NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) performance.

Schematic representation of a Roller-Screw for Illustration

I developed a custom and compact gear-train for a roller screw based linear actuation system.

The CAD and FEA were done on 3DExperience CATIA and ANSYS. I used KISSsoft and Romax for custom involute gear design and evaluating gear parameters and performance.

The Optimus Robot demonstrating advanced mobility capabilities in a lab

©Tesla (via X)

The involute gear root stress, contact stress and contact ratio metrics were modelled using the ISO 6336 standards. Optimal gear design was selected using a high-resolution parameter sweep of the design space, followed by ranking based on a weighted score function and Pareto frontier analysis.

I developed custom test fixtures using axial load cells for evaluating bearing preload in actuator assemblies.