Protoclone
Protoclone is Clone Robotics' faceless musculoskeletal android with over 1,000 artificial muscle fibres, a synthetic skeleton and around 500 sensors. A video in February 2025 showed it twitching while suspended. It is the technology demonstrator for the planned Clone Alpha.
We have not sat down with this one. The score below is computed from the data we hold, and the facts on this page are sourced. It is not on sale, so there is nothing to recommend.
How the score is built
Capability is what the machine physically does. Value compares it with others at a similar price, not with the whole market. Buyability asks whether you can really order one. Ecosystem is the software and community around it. Proof is what it has done in the field, which is where most humanoids score badly and should.
What people buy instead.
- Status
- Prototype
- Category
- research
- First revealed
- 19 February 2025
- Form
- bipedal
- Height
- n/a
- Weight
- n/a
- Payload
- n/a
- Degrees of freedom
- 200
- Battery
- n/a
- Runtime
- n/a
- Walking speed
- n/a
- Actuation
- hydraulic artificial muscles (Myofiber) driven by a water pump (Aquajet)
- Units deployed (est.)
- not disclosed
- Teleoperation
- unknown
Where it stands
Musculoskeletal android prototype shown in video in February 2025; suspended from the ceiling, not walking.
What stands out
- Over 1,000 Myofiber artificial muscles
- Water-based hydraulic system
- Viral video February 2025
Hands, sensors, brain
- Sensors: about 500 sensors (pressure, position, cameras)
Price and volume
no public price
Index position
In the Humanoid Index, which ranks on shipped reality rather than value for money, Protoclone sits at #104 of 107 with 2 points: deployment 0/50, autonomy 2/30, availability 0/20. See that method.
Europe's humanoids: who builds them and what you can order
31 of the 182 humanoids on record come from seven European countries. Three can be ordered, two have a price, and the dearest of those is $75,000 for a robot that does not walk.
How a humanoid robot works: actuators, compute, sensors and the model
Of 182 humanoids on record, 178 say what moves the joints and 43 say what computer is inside. The further a layer sits from the metal, the less the maker tells you about it.
The uncanny valley, and why the newest humanoids have no face
Masahiro Mori warned in 1970 that a nearly human face repels. Of the 182 humanoids in our record, four describe one, and none of the four does physical work for a customer.
Other robots by Clone Robotics.
Sources
- 01Clone RoboticsClone Robotics
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