Think Different

How Do Athletes do it?

The M-DRIVE was developed on principals of kinesiology and kinematics, the study of the human and non-human body movement.

The innovative design simulates the motion of an athlete running,  the pads and linkages emulated hips, legs, knees, and feet of a mechanical runner.

Motion algorithms were created, modeled and applied to the M-DRIVE mechanism.

move different

M-Drive in Action

The M-DRIVE ‘legs and feet’ replaced the age-old brute-force gear teeth with low-friction mating surfaces that act like cleated shoes running on the inside of a cylinder that won’t slip under pressure.

A new method was applied to intelligently create and control the movement to maximize torque and minimize slippage and flexing. Later, a cam follower design and software tools were created to produce a perfectly optimized motion.

• Dramatically increasing contact area and efficiency
• Mating blocks can be made with lightweight materials
• More torque for given weight
• Lower weight for given torque
• Greater rigidity, stable control over the robot

Be Different

New Patented Gear Drive

The brains behind the Motus M-DRIVE is Carlos Hoefken, the CTO and Founder of Motus Labs. Carlos, a robot systems integrator, was frustrated with the cost and limitations of current gear drive technology. Carlos was determined to come up with a smarter solution. His determination led to many late nights, lots of tinkering and five years of dedication, resulting in a unique, breakthrough precision transmission architecture that has several, issued and pending U.S. and International patents.

United States Patents
9,261,176 B2, issued Feb. 16, 2016
10,151,375, issued Dec. 11, 2018
10,240,666 B2, issued March 26, 2019