Dystopian movies have often portrayed robots having human-like capabilities, at least in terms of their movements. Adding to this, the recent advancements in robotics technology – spearheaded by the eminent organizations such as Boston Dynamics, Figure, Unitree and Tesla – have been raising the bar of hopes we have had from robots so far. However, hardly anyone would have thought about seeing a robot with muscles!
We have heard of artificial intelligence, but perhaps never of artificial muscles.
That’s a gamechanger that has been introduced by Clone Robotics. Protoclone is a humanoid robot that has compelled people across the world to reimagine the world of robotics and the composition of robots. The humanoid comes equipped with synthetic muscles that run throughout its full body and help to simulate human-like body movements. The Polish company designed this robot using polymer skeleton that imitate the 206 bones of an actual human body. With over a thousand artificial muscles developed using the Myofiber technology, the robot comes to life with its body movements that make it indistinguishable from a human body for a few seconds.
The technology behind the functionality of the Protoclone robot is McKibbin Pneumatic Muscle concept. This concept proposes that a mesh of tubes containing balloons can be made to contract and dilate based on the flow of hydraulic fluid inside them. This fluid is pumped around the body of the Protoclone using a 500-watt electric pump that pumps 40 litres of fluid per minute.
And that’s not all, Protoclone is also packed with cutting-edge technology throughout its structure. It houses four in-depth cameras inside its skull for artificial vision, 70 inertial sensors in its joints to track their positions and 320 pressure sensors that offer force feedback. This helps the Protoclone to sense its environment and behave accordingly, just like a human would.
The creators of Protoclone suggest that it can walk, talk and perform some household chores just like a human would. However, some experts believe that stability of Protoclone is in question, given that it lacks umbilicals and suspension. Such robots also hold promise for human-machine collaboration as the robots can take up jobs in manufacturing lines and households to free up human’s time. Clone Robotics has also stated that it plans to produce 279 units called Clone Alpha soon and open up the avenues to preorder the robot.
Would you like to have Protoclone by your side to help you with your daily chores?
