I wonder if robots could be made to work better at cryogenic temperature, so superconductors could be used. The figure of merit would be much higher if resistance was zero. Or maybe this is another reason to want room temperature superconductors.

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blueblisters 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You would hit electrical steel saturation limits way before you need to pump in enough current to justify super-conductance.

Cooling in general is not a bad idea to allow you dissipate heat as you push motors to their saturation limits.

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Robotbeat 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Even copper has vastly lower resistance when cryogenically cooled. It's not a bad idea for some applications, and water cooling is already a good way to increase power density.

	▲	hinkley 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I learned recently that the inductive heating coils used for metallurgy (smithing) are copper tubing with coolant flushing through them. The copper tries to heat up along with the bar you’re heating in the coil. Both from resistance and from radiative heating.