Clone Robotics is a humanoid-robotics company based in Poland and founded in 2021. Its approach is biomimetic, using muscles, tendons, and joint structures modeled on human anatomy rather than the electric-motor actuation used by conventional humanoid platforms such as Figure and Tesla Optimus.
Overview
The company's flagship system is Protoclone V1, a bipedal musculoskeletal android unveiled on February 19, 2025. Its design models muscles, tendons, and joint structures on human anatomy, which distinguishes it from humanoid robots built on electric-motor actuation. As of April 2026 the company had limited public commercial traction and remained primarily research- and demo-stage. The company's website is clonerobotics.com ("Home – Clone").
Biomimetic, musculoskeletal actuation has been described as offering compliance and safety characteristics that differ from those of motor-actuated platforms, a distinction relevant to the labor-automation and humanoid-robotics timelines discussed in The Industrial Explosion (Davidson, Hadshar).
Technical approach
Clone Robotics actuates its androids with artificial muscles it calls Myofiber, contractile fibers driven hydraulically by water pressure rather than by electric motors and gearboxes. The company pairs these actuators with a skeleton, tendons and synthetic organs intended to reproduce human range of motion and proportions, positioning the anatomically modeled design as an alternative to the rigid, motor-and-actuator construction used by most humanoid developers (Source: yahoo.com).
Products
The company announced Clone Alpha in December 2024, describing it as a full-scale humanoid built with Myofiber muscles, a synthetic skeleton and synthetic organs, and powered hydraulically; the announcement drew attention for the lifelike, anatomically detailed design and the company's stated intent to open a limited run of preorders (Source: yahoo.com). In February 2025 Clone circulated video of Protoclone, a suspended full-body musculoskeletal android twitching through human-like motions; the footage spread widely and drew both interest and unease at the realism of the movement (Source: inc.com).
Industry context
Clone Robotics is frequently grouped with the leading humanoid-robotics developers — alongside Figure, Physical Intelligence and Tesla Optimus — but is distinguished from them by its biomimetic, hydraulically actuated design rather than electric-motor actuation. Its systems remained at the demonstration and early-product stage rather than in commercial deployment.
Relationships
- related: Figure AI, Physical Intelligence, The Industrial Explosion (Davidson, Hadshar), AI Robotics.
Sources
- Clone Robotics / Protoclone: Bipedal Musculoskeletal Android V1 (2025-02-19)
- Yahoo News (Interesting Engineering) / Clone Alpha: water-powered humanoid robot with synthetic organs, muscles unveiled (2024-12-06)
- Inc. / AI Takes Its Next Big Step: 'Westworld'-Style Robots (2026-02-27)