Clone Robotics, a young company founded in 2021 in Poland, made a bold bet: to reproduce the human body down to the smallest detail to create a robot capable of moving, or even “living”, like a real human being. Clone Alpha, their latest creation, marks an important step on this path which promises to be very long.
Robots imitate nature
Unlike other companies that develop robots for specific tasks like Boston Dynamics, Clone Robotics focuses on biomimetics, that is to say the imitation of biological functions. Their approach is based on a simple principle: first imitate nature, then integrate advanced technologies.
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To animate Clone Alpha’s skeleton, the company uses artificial muscles called Myofiber. These fibers, incredibly light and powerful, reproduce the performance of human muscles, with a response time of less than 50 milliseconds and rapid contraction. To function, these muscles are powered by a compact hydraulic system, designed to mimic a human heart.
And the realism doesn’t stop there. Clone Alpha’s skeleton consists of all 206 bones of the human body, and each joint, ligament and tendon is carefully positioned to replicate natural movements. Result: 164 degrees of freedom in the upper part of the body, from the fingers to the neck, including the shoulders.
Clone Alpha doesn’t just impress with its looks. Its technological “backbone”, based on sensors and microcontrollers, allows it to move with great precision. Its nervous system integrates no less than 4 depth cameras, 70 inertial sensors and 320 pressure sensors, all connected to a powerful NVIDIA Jetson Thor unit. Thanks to this equipment, Clone Alpha can sense objects and adjust its movements in real time.
The Polish company does not hide its ambition: to make this robot a benchmark in humanoid robotics. For now, it has opened pre-orders for 279 units of Clone Alpha… although a fully functional prototype has yet to be manufactured.
Clone Robotics is not its first success. Before Clone Alpha, the company presented a robotic hand capable of grabbing objects with disconcerting agility and a humanoid torso with natural movements. Today, she is taking a new step with this complete robot, designed to walk and move like a human.
However, the work is far from finished to move from functional prototypes to reliable models in real situations. And all these technologies will have to prove their usefulness in real conditions.
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