Hardware
Cooling System
A cooling system is the thermal management hardware that removes heat from a robot's motors, drives, and compute, using passive heatsinks, forced-air fans, or liquid cooling loops. Actuator torque is thermally limited: continuous torque ratings assume steady-state heat dissipation, and exceeding them triggers derating or shutdown. High-torque-density humanoid actuators and embedded GPUs both push thermal envelopes, making cooling design integral to sustained performance.
Why it matters for physical AI
Sustained manipulation workloads and onboard inference are thermally bound, so cooling capacity determines whether a robot's peak capabilities are usable for minutes or full shifts in deployment.
Related terms
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