TOKYO, July 19 – Japanese scientists have devised a way to attach living skin tissue to robotic faces and make them “smile,” in a breakthrough that holds out promise of applications in cosmetics and medicine.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo grew human skin cells in the shape of a face and pulled it into a wide grin, using embedded ligament-like attachments.
A screenshot of an illustration, from the study published by Cell Reports Physical Science, shows how to attach the living skin to the robotic surface.
The result, though eerie, is an important step towards building more life-like robots, said lead researcher Shoji Takeuchi. “By attaching these actuators and anchors, it became possible to manipulate living skin for the first time,” he added.
The smiling robot, featured in a study published last month by Cell Reports Physical Science, is the fruit of a decade of research by Takeuchi and his lab on how best to combine biological and artificial machines.
