Summary
- Clone Robotics’ androids have a muscular, skeletal, nervous, and vascular system mimicking humans, entering the uncanny valley.
- The company is aware of the ominous marketing around their robots, utilizing the creepiness for promotional purposes.
- Clone’s breakthrough technology offers potential in creating world-changing improvements in robotics, prosthetics, and exoskeletons with fluid muscle contraction.
Robots of all varieties are coming thick and fast, though humanoid robots get the most airtime. Not all of them get it for the right reasons, and in the case of Clone’s creepy robots, it’s their flair for the dramatic that’s been a marketing success.
Clone’s Robots Have Muscles, Sinew, and Skin
If you’ve watched the remake of Westworld by HBO, you’ve probably seen those white humanoid drone robots that work in the underground labs and various other locations around the eponymous park. Clone’s bots bear more than a passing resemblance to these fictional organic-looking androids, which I think is pretty cool, but does play into the whole thing where real-world companies will call themselves things like Soylent or Cyberdyne, because picking brand names from dystopian science fiction is hilarious.
In any event, the actual robotic prototypes that have been shown off by Clone look suitably impressive, and are part of a field in robotics known as biomimetics, which attempts to artificially replicate biological body designs. So that includes making robots that fly like birds and insect, and it also includes trying to replicate movement with artificial muscles and bones, instead of motors and joints.
The Clone Android has a muscular, skeletal, nervous, and vascular system. So it closely mimics the look and proportions of a human, falling right into the uncanny valley.
The Android V1 is a culmination of other projects such as their torso and hand designs. Here you can see a demo of their muscle and tendon system operating a thumb.
Having a hand and arm with the same compact design as a real biological human arm is one of the holy grails of robotics, and at first glance this seems to be most of the way there. But of course we don’t know how well it actually performs yet.
Here in this static strength test, however, you can see how well the hand grips, and you can also see the artifical muscle system working inside the forearm.
Finally, have a look at the torso demo, with an actuated abdomen.
Now you should have a good idea of what Clone is aiming for, and you may also feel a little discomforted—don’t worry, that’s normal!
For Some Reason, the Company Prefers Ominous Marketing
These demos are cool, and of course I’ve seen plenty of robot demos over the decades that are unintentionally creepy, but Clone is very aware of what they’re doing here and are leaning into it with gusto.
The video that brought them to everyone’s attention shows the Protoclone, which is a full-sized humanoid with legs, suspended in the air, which twitches for our entertainment as ominous sound effects play.
I guess it’s a form of genius to recognize how the public is going to perceive your technology, so you might as well roll with it, but the company website promises “Musculoskeletal, intelligent androids to solve all the common problems of daily life.” and that’s somehow even more ominous.
But all the marketing bluster aside, is any of this necessary or even useful? I think so, and here’s why.
Related
Figure Robotic’s Helix Demo Is Much More Impressive Than it Looks
They’re starting to figure it out.
The Creepiness Hides Several Major Potential Breakthroughs
I read an interesting article on the history of Clone Robotics and how the founder, Lukasz Kozlik, started work on musculoskeletal robotics in 2014. Additional talent joined the company to help with the intelligence side of the equation, since learning to move such complex biomechanical bodies is no small feat.
Technology that promises to replicate the size, power, and dexterity of the human body efficiently would be world-changing. Now, again, what the company has shown to the public so far doesn’t indicate that they’re anywhere close to that ideal, but what they have shown is impressive from a design perspective.
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Compact and Fluid Robots Are Important
An artificial robot with similar size and fluidity advantages as a biological animal could really change the game. Imagine if Boston Dynamics’ Spot dog robot used smooth and fluid muscle contraction instead of the robotic stomping motions it uses now. It could probably make subtle adjustments to maintain balance and use less power in total.
Copying nature too slavishly isn’t good either, but Clone seem to be going down a different avenue than most other mainstream humanoid robot designers right now, and I will always be in favor of having diverse approaches to the same problem, instead of everyone simply copying the safest and most pedestrian designs.
Clone’s Tech Applies to Prosthetics Too
While this isn’t their main goal, I’m sure, the designers of these robotic components could also be helping to advance prosthetic technology. The more likelike and natural we can make prosthetic limbs, the better the outcomes for amputees. Moreover, I bet you could probably build much more natural and effective exoskeletons using this technology to boot, which also has therapeutic applications.
Based on what I’ve read so far, Clone’s muscles use hydraulic power, and it seems like it’s aiming to have an internal hydraulic power source in the Androids. So that’s not miles away from having a small power supply that could fit on a belt pack, or perhaps inside larger limbs such as the upper leg.
I do know that Clone’s marketing and design flair have caught my attention, and I will definitely be following its progress with interest.
