actuator
noun
ac·tu·a·tor
| \ ˈak-chə-ˌwā-tər
, -shə-\
, -shə-\
Definition of actuator
: one that actuates
specifically
: a mechanical device for moving or controlling something
Examples of actuator in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
And the simplest way to do that was simply to double the number of wings, with each actuator now flapping two wings. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "Flying, insect-like robot flits closer to independent flight," 26 June 2019 Tubs filled with the stuff to make robots — actuators, wheels and other components — sit on a table in one of the rooms, many of which have white boards covered with graffiti-like scrawls of mathematical equations. — Marco Santana, orlandosentinel.com, "Osceola’s NeoCity Academy stresses tech, entrepreneurship," 19 Aug. 2019 For one, these kinds of actuators have nowhere near the power of traditional motors, which allow robots on automotive assembly lines to heft massive pieces of metal. — Matt Simon, WIRED, "Finally, a Robot That Moves Kind of Like a Tongue," 1 Aug. 2019 The team even sources ultralight motors called linear actuators capable of generating enough force to lift more than a pound while weighing only about as much as a ballpoint pen. — San Diego Union-Tribune, "UCSD students restore motion to five-year-old boy’s arms," 15 June 2019 More recently, Chen has made thin moondust mirrors that can be reshaped by actuators on the back surface to compensate for temperature changes and for gravity as the mirror moves. — Daniel Clery, Science | AAAS, "Could humanity’s return to the moon spark a new age of lunar telescopes?," 18 July 2019 The next issue was linking the piezoelectric actuators to the solar power source. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "Flying, insect-like robot flits closer to independent flight," 26 June 2019 Dozens of times per second, the turbulence measurement is used to reposition thousands of actuators attached to flexible mirrors inside the telescope, reshaping them to cancel out the atmospheric distortion. — Quanta Magazine, "Peering Into the Early Universe," 7 Mar. 2013 Soft-bodied robots, as their name implies, don't have the sort of hard skeletons that typical robotic actuators can push against. — John Timmer, Ars Technica, "Researchers make a robotic fish with a battery for blood," 19 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'actuator.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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