When we think of robots, we usually picture machines with clunky, mechanical movements—much like the motions and gestures of a waitress in China who tricks customers into thinking she’s an android. Well, the days of “robotic” being synonymous with rigid moves may be over. Clone Robotics, a Poland-based company, has introduced the Protoclone, a robot with synthetic muscles that give it eerily realistic human motions.
The Protoclone is described as a “faceless, anatomically accurate, synthetic human with over 200 degrees of freedom, over 1,000 Myofibers, and over 200 sensors.” A video shared by the company shows the full-body humanoid robot hanging from the ceiling. Since it’s still in development, the Protoclone requires to be suspended from the ceiling for stability.
Without knowing that the video is of a robot, it’s easy to mistake the figure for an actual person covered in white body paint. And yet, the most unsettling bit are not the graceful movements, but the fluidly imperfect motions that make it all the more human-like.
Clone Robotics created the Protoclone using a polymer skeleton complete with replicas of all 206 bones in the human body. To bring it all together, the robot has 1,000 artificial muscles made up of mesh tubes with balloons that contract when filled with hydraulic fluid, similar to human muscles. The fluid is circled by a 500-watt electric pump that doubles as the robot’s “heart.”
The company has created this meticulous technology with the aim of producing humanoid robots that can perform daily chores such as doing laundry, washing dishes, and cooking basic meals. In order to effectively “teach” the robots how to do all of this, Clone Robots has designed them to watch humans doing these tasks. That’s why they’ve fitted them with four depth cameras in their skull, which serve as eyes; 70 inertial sensors to trace joint positions; and 320 pressure sensors to asses the strength needed for each assignment.
The Protoclone is the sum of years of work, as Clone Robotics has devoted themselves to throughly understanding and recreating the inner workings of each body part. The company first dazzled the world with footage of a robotic hand with a full range of motion—it was even capable of lifting a weight. More recently, they showed their Torso 2, presented as the “most advanced android ever created with an actuated lumbar spine and all the corresponding abdominal muscles.”
To stay up to date with their creations, follow Clone Robotics on Instagram.
Clone Robotics has devoted themselves to throughly understanding and recreating the inner workings of each body part.
The result is a series of robots with eerily human-like movements.
Clone Robotics: Website | Instagram
Sources: Protoclone: Bipedal Musculoskeletal Android V1; Torso 2 by Clone with Actuated Abdomen; Robot with 1,000 muscles twitches like human while dangling from ceiling
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