February 12, 2026
The Dexterity Deadlock
Why high-ratio gearboxes are the bottleneck
Robot dexterity is stuck behind many unsolved problems. This post focuses on one that we think is underappreciated: the gearbox. High-ratio gearboxes break sim-to-real transfer, destroy force transparency, and are the first thing to wear out. We explain why, and what we did about it.