NASA is flexing its crowdsourcing muscle, using an ongoing partnership with Freelancer.com to encourage people to design a robotic arm for the ISS.

NASA has started a project on Freelancer.com, aiming to recruit people to design a robotic arm for Astrobee, a robot that will end up on the International Space Station that will conduct inspections.

Why cycloidal gears? They are readily 3D printed and offer low backlash, which makes them attractive for robotic applications. There’s no need to design cycloidal gears from scratch, either.