Clone Robotics New Superintelligent Androids Sup[rise Everyone

So today we got a incredible announcement from the company Clone Robotics. This is a robotics company that is pioneering highly realistic humanoid robots, with a particular emphasis on creating robotic hands and robotic torsos that mimic realistic human movements. Today they announced their new humanoid torso that is just incredibly realistic. And now this company has been producing this kind of stuff for quite some time. But it's only recently that we started to see an increased number of demos that are showing us what they are truly capable of. Now, the demo that you're seeing here is of their new torso. And this torso has some seriously advanced features. You see, they said that this torso is designed with bi manual capabilities. That essentially refers to the fact that this robot has two fully functioning arms and it can use them both at the same time, just like we do. Imagine a robot that can open a jar with one hand while holding it steady with the other. That's the kind of potential you talk about when you're looking at this robot. Now, the craziest thing about this is that these arms and movements are powered by what are called artificial muscles. Now, when you compare this to traditional robots, they often rely on motors and rigid parts to move, which can make their movement a bit clunky or mechanical. But artificial muscles are a game changer. They're designed to mimic the smooth, flexible way that our muscles and tendons work, allowing the robot to move in a much more natural and fluid way. And it's almost like watching a human move, except, you know, without the skin and bones, especially in this example. There are some examples where they do have skin, but this is not one of them. Now, in the follow up tweet, Clone Robotics dives into the technical aspects of this Android, which is where they state that they've actuated key parts of the body, like the elbow and cervical spine, which is the neck. So not only can this Android move its arms, it can also tilt and rotate its head, which adds a whole new layer of versatility. It's like giving the robot a whole range of motion that we would expect out of a human. Now, they also talk about these shoulders. They mentioned that they've got anthropomorphic shoulders, meaning that they're designed to work exactly like how human shoulders do. And if you've ever studied how the human body moves, you know that the shoulder is just insanely complex. It's made up of several key parts that all allow for different ranges and different sorts of motion, from lifting to rotating. Now, they mention specific joints which are the fancy names for the different parts of the shoulder. The that work together to give us our full range of motion. And this robot somehow manages to mimic all of that. Now, they talk about how they've built this valve matrix in the center of the chest area, or as they describe it, inside the rib cage. The valve matrix helps control this robot's artificial muscles, quite like how our lungs and diaphragm help to regulate our breathing and movement. And this is essentially the way that they've managed to design this robot so that it isn't needing bulky equipment. I remember looking at previous iterations of this robot and seeing that there were a lot of wires in the mix, but now they are seeming to tidy things up overall. When I did see this first demo from Clone Robotics, I have to say I was quite surprised. I was aware that this company did exist because they have released quite a lot of footage in the past few years. For example, they released videos of their advanced robotic arm that was achieving some rather impressive feats. For example, they had this video that I think had around 4 million views. And you could see that in this video it also swiftly showcases a version of the torso that they were working towards building, which might be what the final version looks like. So, of course, the most impressive thing about this video, in which they, you know, put some words in the description, they said that the forearm and the hand together only weigh 1 kg, which is 2.2 pounds. And this actually highlights the power density to be able to hold a 7 kilogram dumbbell, which is 15.6 pounds, in just a very efficient manner. Now, the robotic arm actually operates at 200 watts at peak power, meaning that this is incredibly energy efficient, especially for the kind of work that it's going to be doing. And it's powered by water, which is another innovative aspect. And this makes it actually clean and safe compared to traditional robotic systems that often use complex hydraulics or heavy motors. Now, they didn't actually stop on just creating the muscles they speak about in the description, how they managed to create a portable power supply and their own custom valves. These components are the key to the arm's precise control, allowing them to adjust the speed and strength of the arm's movement, while also fitting the entire system in a human like torso. Now, this prototype that you are seeing is one from a few years ago. They have provided us with more demos that showcase exactly how well this hand performs. And of course, in the description, they mention that they want to build a platform for reinforcement learning where the robot could eventually learn and adapt to its movements. And they aim to create prosthetic Arms for people, which is one of the things that they've said. I mean, there's a variety of different ways that this kind of technology can go, provided you use it in the right way. Now, there was also a recent demo that showcased the teleoperation. And the teleoperation was completely incredible. We can see that the user is able to control another hand that is seemingly human, which is rather strange to individuals like myself who are starting to see robotics cross the Uncalli Valley. And of course, you can see the robot hand is able to catch a ball, which is pretty impressive by any standard. Now, when seeing this, I think some people were initially skeptical. One of the things that tends to happen with technology is, of course, as always, there's going to be an area of extreme hype as it technology is new. A lot of people are going to into this, I guess you could say mania or hype phase, where they think that, like, super intelligent beings are coming. But I think one of the main questions that, you know, some people were asking was, of course, what are the actual benefits of a bimanual Android with artificial muscles? Like, what is the actual point of this when you have different robots that can perform specialized actions? Well, there's a few reasons why that you might need this. One of the things that robots kind of suffer with is the fact that they have, you know, motors and rigid mechanism that makes their movement stiff and jerky. And the introduction of artificial muscles means that this Android moves in a smoother, more human like way. It can bend its arms, rotate its shoulders, and even tilt its head in ways that, you know, are much more lifelike. And this fluidity is quite important in tasks that require precision or delicate handling. For example, if we wanted a robot to handle fragile items in a warehouse, having a robot that's able to do much more natural movements could make the robot much more capable. That was a probably terrible example that I could think of, but I'm sure there's a bunch of different use cases to where in 10 years, if this company manages to advance more, we get a lot more out of these robots than we would traditional ones. Now, of course, with advanced joint design, like the multiple shoulder joints and the actuated spine, this Android can perform a much wider range of motions compared to traditional robots. In a human, the shoulder allows for an incredible range of motion in different directions. Remember, with your shoulders, you can move up, you can reach to the side, you can rotate your arm. And clone robotics have replicated this, meaning that the Android can move a lot more like us, which is Crucial for tasks that need flexibility, like assembling intricate parts or interacting in environments that are designed for humans. Now, the crazy thing about all of this is that bimanual manipulation is actually pretty hard to achieve. Most robots can actually do this pretty easily with one arm, but handling something that requires two arms working together is pretty hard to achieve. Now, I know that most people on Instant would have seen this robot and thought of Westworld. Unfortunately, I didn't watch Westworld, but upon looking at these screenshots, I can completely understand where you are coming from. I think this kind of research is something that is fascinating considering the fact that they are taking a completely different avenue than the other humanoid robot companies. If you've seen what some of the other companies are working on, it's stuff that is completely different to what clone robotics is working on. Which means that the robotics space is about to get a lot more interesting. Currently, this is the only company that I am aware of that is working on artificial muscles. And it will be really interesting to see if any other companies are tackling such a complex problem. You have to remember that robotics is one of the hardest things to do. So tackling something that is this complex, such as trying to replicate the human muscles, is going to be a really big feat to achieve. Now, in their Twitter bio, they've described them as Musco skeletal superintelligent androids, which is, of course, what they're planning for the future future. And you can see that they have some screenshots here showing the ultimate tool user. So these are screenshots from the hands that have this kind of like skin slash fabric. And you can see that you have these artificial muscles that are underneath that look really cool. And these are the kinds of applications that we could have these dynamic hands working in. I mean, maybe cutting hair, maybe using power tools, maybe performing injections, maybe using a scalpel. The abilities and possibilities are going to be completely endless once these things get really fine. Now, one of the craziest things about this is that we can see that the hands that they've shown us are actually powered by those muscles. And those muscles can actually bleed, interestingly enough. So in this video, they actually show us that the new kind of muscles that they managed to build in this video footage is actually quite old, but essentially they just bleed without a visible detail decrease in performance. And of course, this was a V11 clone hand, and they are, you know, much more advanced now, but of course, they've increased the durability of the muscles to operate under higher pressures and sustained life. Cycles. And of course, at this time, the next step was to add the second half of the forearm muscles to achieve all of the degrees of freedom of a human hand. Now, I think by far this is one of the most uncanny things that I've ever seen. But I think if this kind of company does take off in terms of funding, in terms of research, in terms of top tier talent starting to work at the labs, I think this could be one of the most futuristic robots that could ever exist, provided that this platform is as human like as anything. I mean, it seems like it's going to be really hard to do, but it will be interesting to see how this company takes slash tackles this major robotics challenge.