Set the appropriately ominous music, Clone Robotics released a video of its latest humanoid robot, eerily twitching as if it’s being hung from a butcher’s hook.
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Dubbed “Protoclone”, the creation is the brainchild of Polish company Clone Robotics, which describes it as a “faceless, anatomically accurate synthetic human with over 200 degrees of freedom, over 1,000 Myofibers, and 500 sensors.”
The start-up posted a video (below) of their “musculoskeletal android” on social media in a post that quickly attracted tens of millions of views. Like many advancements in humanoid robotics, the video sparked a mix of awe and uneasiness. “STOKED,” one user commented, while another joked, “We had a good run, fellow humans.”
The website of Clone Robotics explains the company is working towards a robot called Clone Alpha, designed to be an android servant that makes meals, cleans, and does your household chores.
The aim is to make a human-like robot out of polymer materials that feature all 206 bones of the human body, along with fully articulated ligaments and connective tissues. All of this will be powered by a “vascular system” fuelled by a 500-watt electric pump and a network of hydraulic pressure tubes.
It will also feature a computer-based “nervous system” comprised of four cameras in its skull, 70 inertial sensors, and 320 pressure sensors. Living human users will be able to interact with the bot using a ChatGPT-like AI, enabling everyday conversation and so-called witty dialogue.
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If the sight of a half-alive android writhing from a cable doesn’t freak you out, we have good news: you might soon be able to have one in your own home. The company is set to produce 279 units in the first batch, with pre-orders seemingly available soon.
By closely mimicking musculoskeletal structures, Clone Robotics is taking a unique approach to humanoid robots, but they’re not the only ones in the game. Over in the UK, Engineered Arts has been working on some of the world’s most advanced human-shaped robots, capable of replicating a wide range of human expressions.
Robots may not yet match our childhood dreams of the future, but they’re steadily becoming more impressive. However, the more advanced they get, the harder it becomes to clear an important hurdle: the uncanny valley. That’s the eerie sensation we feel when something looks almost human, but not quite, making it more unsettling than lifelike. If humans are to start sharing homes and public spaces with these machines, it’s a genuine problem that engineers and psychologists are going to need to confront.
Source Link: Everyone's Impressed And Freaked Out By This Twitching "Musculoskeletal Android"
