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Thursday, December 23, 2021

Humanoid Robots Are Coming


Artificial Muscles Robotic Arm Full Range of Motion + Static Strength Test (V11)
Clone Incorporated (Automaton Robotics)

I'm impressed. If they are able to interface it to the human nervous system it would be great leap forward for prosthetics. A prosthetic will never be as good as the original, but after seeing the reaction of amputees to getting an artificial limb they can control I'm thinking this is pretty great.

The YouTube blurb:
We have achieved strong, fast, power-dense, high-efficiency, biomimetic, soft, safe, clean, organic and affordable robotic technology. The dumbbell weights 7 kg (15,6 lbs), forearm with hand only 1 kg (2,2 lbs).

This artificial muscles robotic arm is operated by water and consumes 200W at peak. We invent and produce portable power supply and our own valves to have complete controllability of speed contraction and compress the whole powering system (for a full body) inside humanlike robot torso.

At this moment our robotic arm is operated only by a half of artificial muscles when compared to a human body. Strongest finger-bending muscle still missing. Fingers are going to move from left to right but they don't have muscles yet. Metacarpal and left-to-right wrist movement are also blocked. This version has a position sensor in each joint but they are yet to be software-implemented. We are going to add everything mentioned above in the next prototype. 

The movement sequence was written and sent by simple commands to a hand. We wish to develop a platform for reinforcement learning purposes, prosthetic arms and ultimately a full humanoid robots to serve people for fun, as butlers, cleaners, chauffeurs,  construction workers (also in space) and even in the future achieve human immortality by transplanting the brain into the machine.

Clone Incorporated
Lucas Kozlik, Dhanush Rad, Amdeusz Swierk, Juliusz Tarnowski

I don't think transplanting brains or human immortality are worthwhile goals. Mentioning them might get them some additional funding. Replicating the mechanics of a human body (the structure and motion) is trivial compared to the trying to replicate the nervous system. We might someday be able to 'grow' a nervous system, but it would require a completely different set of skills and techniques.

A positronic brain, though, that is a distinct possibility.

It does not matter if any one person survives, it only matters if there is enough intelligence to contain and grok our accumulated knowledge, and that might require an artificial intelligence.

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