Protoclone humanoid
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Sergei Grichine
Sep 5, 2025, 3:06:09 PMSep 5
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Hydraulic muscle full-body robot — a bit creepy, but it seems quite capable, especially in the hand movements.
The interesting part is how much more reliable hydraulics can be compared to servos. That reliability really matters when you’re dealing with a thousand actuators.
Best Regards,
-- Sergei
James H Phelan
Sep 5, 2025, 3:15:31 PMSep 5
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Remarkably dexterous!
No mention of price that I can see.
Shall we reserve one as a group?
James H Phelan "Nihil est sine ratione cur potius sit quam non sit" Leibniz
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Alan Timm
Sep 5, 2025, 5:53:05 PMSep 5
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Thomas Messerschmidt
Sep 5, 2025, 6:12:23 PMSep 5
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Lol!
Thomas
I thought these looked familiar...
<Drone2.jpg>
On Friday, September 5, 2025 at 12:06:09 PM UTC-7 Sergei Grichine wrote:
Hydraulic muscle full-body robot — a bit creepy, but it seems quite capable, especially in the hand movements.
The interesting part is how much more reliable hydraulics can be compared to servos. That reliability really matters when you’re dealing with a thousand actuators.
Best Regards,-- Sergei
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<Drone2.jpg>
cmay...@gmail.com
Sep 22, 2025, 7:10:05 PM (9 days ago) Sep 22
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This looks cool! Does anyone know of what the actuators for the fluid are? It would be fun to build a single muscle prototype controlled by an Arduino.
s...@lig.net
Sep 23, 2025, 2:11:18 AM (8 days ago) Sep 23
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They are using water filled McKibben muscles, usually called 'air muscles' when used with air pressure. They have a single water pump + many valves.
They don't reveal what kind of valve they are using, and they have no patents on it that I can find. That probably means that it is commercial or commercially custom.
Now that I am looking at valves again, specifically searching for "latching solenoid valve", I am finding some interesting options. Some of them are also proportional. I have considered pneumatic & hydraulic actuaters many times, but the valves & pumps are usually too heavy, expensive, and loud. It looks like microfluidics in biology and perhaps aerospace innovation cycles have provided some new technologies. I also see pulse solenoid valves that might be useable.
I suspect they are feeding the output of the pump possibly into a pressure reservoir, then into many valves that lead to the input to the muscles. Probably would need one-way valves + an outflow valve that leads to the low pressure input reservoir for the pump. With latching valves, extra electrical power is only needed to change the valve. So continuous movement can be driven from the pump, gradually turning off as the target is reached.
This makes hydraulic actuation much more interesting.
Still, 1000 McKibben muscles filled with water is going to be heavy. Looks like they are keeping them thin, so perhaps it isn't that bad vs. the strength they can provide. The McKibben mechanism (diamond-oriented nylon-like mesh around a rubber-like tube) is an old well-understood approach now.
Stephen
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They don't reveal what kind of valve they are using, and they have no patents on it that I can find. That probably means that it is commercial or commercially custom.
Now that I am looking at valves again, specifically searching for "latching solenoid valve", I am finding some interesting options. Some of them are also proportional. I have considered pneumatic & hydraulic actuaters many times, but the valves & pumps are usually too heavy, expensive, and loud. It looks like microfluidics in biology and perhaps aerospace innovation cycles have provided some new technologies. I also see pulse solenoid valves that might be useable.
I suspect they are feeding the output of the pump possibly into a pressure reservoir, then into many valves that lead to the input to the muscles. Probably would need one-way valves + an outflow valve that leads to the low pressure input reservoir for the pump. With latching valves, extra electrical power is only needed to change the valve. So continuous movement can be driven from the pump, gradually turning off as the target is reached.
This makes hydraulic actuation much more interesting.
Still, 1000 McKibben muscles filled with water is going to be heavy. Looks like they are keeping them thin, so perhaps it isn't that bad vs. the strength they can provide. The McKibben mechanism (diamond-oriented nylon-like mesh around a rubber-like tube) is an old well-understood approach now.
Stephen
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