Lifelike robots could be a step closer to reality with a new development from the University of Tokyo, where scientists have made a prototype with living skin capable of a "natural smile".
The University of Tokyo team aimed to find a good way of binding living skin, which is skin grown in a lab from living cells, to a humanoid robot.
Living skin, also known as cultured skin, has been used in the robotics field before, but without a good mechanism to attach it to a base layer, it is deformed or damaged with movement.
The researchers' attachment method is inspired by the ligaments in human tissues and allows the skin to move in a realistic way, which they demonstrated by way of a smile.
The University of Tokyo researchers created a flat robot face capable of smiling The innovation could pave the way for robots to have not just a more human-like appearance but better mobility, self-healing capabilities and the potential to sense changes in pressure or vibration the way biological skin can, said the University of Tokyo.
"In this study, we managed to replicate human appearance to some extent by creating a face with the same surface material and structure as humans," said team lead Shoji Takeuchi.
"Creating robots that can heal themselves, sense their environment more accurately and perform tasks with humanlike dexterity is incredibly motivating."

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