A Polish robotics expert has created an extraordinary synthetic muscular arm and hand that can lift a dumbbell, seeking to match the intricacy of the human body by creating a dextrous but robust limb. Automaton Robotics designed and manufactured the limb, which is powered by electricity and uses hydraulics to lift heavy loads, all while appearing like something out of Westworld. The video is the most recent in a series of updates on the arms’ progress, and it still needs a few more artificial muscles to be finished. Although the arm only has about half the muscles of a biological arm, it is nonetheless capable of a wide range of motion.
“At the moment, our robotic arm is controlled by half as many artificial muscles as a human body.” The strongest finger-bending muscle has yet to discover. The fingers will move from left to right, although they do not yet have muscles. The designers explain in the video description “metacarpal and left-to-right wrist movement are likewise prevented.” “Each joint in this version contains a position sensor, but they have yet to be software-implemented. Everything described above will be included in the next prototype.”
Automaton Robotics is a robotics company established in Poland with a single committed engineer whose primary goal is to develop the world’s most advanced humanoid robot. ukasz Kolik has spent the last seven years developing a robot concept based on intricate synthetic muscle systems and software to provide fine motor control, and he believes that muscle mimicking will result in a robot that is quick, efficient, and economical. Each muscle is made up of McKibben muscles, or pneumatic artificial muscles that fill a bladder with either air or hydraulic fluid and can contract and relax at will. Automaton Robotics took this a step further, creating a completely electric version using boiled low-temperature fluid.
So far, a torso and an arm have joined to a skeleton similar to those found in a doctor’s office. The method appears to be working, as seen by outstanding control over individual fingers and the arm’s ability to support a 7-kilogram dumbbell (15.6 pounds). Warm fluid runs via synthetic veins, making the robot warm-blooded in a way. All it needs now is a Jarvis-like AI, and the product will be uncannily human-like. Unfortunately, the gifted engineer is completely reliant on internet patronage (his Patronite can be found here), but he now intends to raise enough funds to recruit an assistant to help him complete the project.
