- The robot face is covered with skin grown from a cell sample in the laboratory
- READ MORE: Watch a creepy humanoid robot mimic facial expressions
In science fiction films like Alien, humanoid robots are so lifelike that it is almost impossible to distinguish them from a real human.
Now scientists in Japan are developing real versions of these realistic machines.
Experts at the University of Tokyo have created a robotic face from human skin grown in the laboratory.
A creepy video shows the bizarre pink creature attempting a mischievous smile.
According to the scientists, robots with real skin would not only have an “increasingly lifelike appearance” but would also be able to heal themselves if damaged.
Click here to resize this module
The research was led by Professor Shoji Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo and detailed in a new study in Cell Reports Physical Science.
Professor Takeuchi’s laboratory has already developed mini-robots that walk using biological muscle tissue, 3D-printed meat grown in the lab, and artificially produced skin that can heal.
“We succeeded in recreating the human appearance to a certain extent by creating a face with the same surface material and structure as humans,” said Professor Takeuchi.
The “artificial skin tissue” is created by taking a sample of human skin cells and growing them in the laboratory – similar to the development of cultured meat.
Study co-author Michio Kawai of Harvard University told MailOnline: “These human skin cells are mainly obtained from excess skin left over from surgery.”
“Cultured skin has the same composition as human skin and is also used as a transplant material for people with severe burns or injuries.”
Click here to resize this module
Creating living skin from cell cultures comes with its own challenges, but the hardest part was attaching the skin to a robotic face made of acrylic resin.
Previous methods included mini anchors or hooks, but these limited the surfaces that could be covered with skin coatings and could cause damage if moved.
So the team instead used a special collagen gel for adhesion and drilled special holes in the robot’s face so that the layer of lab-grown skin could better adhere.
Through the careful construction of small perforations, virtually any surface can be covered with skin, it is said.
Although there is still a long way to go before we have talking humanoids that look just like us, Professor Takeuchi and his colleagues believe that living skin can give robots a range of new abilities.
Robots with facial skin have self-healing powers, integrated sensor functions and an “increasingly lifelike appearance”.
“This research introduces an approach to attaching and actuating skin equivalents with perforating anchors and potentially contributes to advances in biohybrid robotics,” their article states.
“Unlike other self-healing materials that require heat or pressure to trigger adhesion to cut surfaces, the skin equivalent can regenerate defects through cell proliferation without any triggers.”
The next challenge will be to create a range of human-like expressions by integrating sophisticated muscle-like actuators into the robot.