It has been common for years, even centuries, to give robots skin that looks like human skin. But giving them real, live skin that can be changed into horrifying, slimy faces? That’s different.
There is a new paper in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science that is mostly just an experiment. This won’t be the front of your next smart home hub or cleaner.
But the clever machines that have been built up over billions of years of evolution might be better in some cases than artificial skin (which is still being worked on) or surfaces that aren’t as complicated. This makes me think of a lot of questions, but as is right in scientific inquiry, only one is the main point of the paper.
For example, how would such a surface made of living tissue connect to the mechanical base of a robot’s limb or “face,” taking into account all of its pros and cons?
There is a network of ligaments that hold the skin of people and other animals in place over muscle and tissue below. I’ve found that this works pretty well. Researchers from the University of Tokyo and Harvard wanted to see if they could make a version of this that would allow live skin to stick closely to an artificial surface and be moved in different directions without tearing or changing shape accidentally.
So, How Did Their “Equivalent Skin” Do? You Be The Judge:
Good old fear fuel. The only thing you can say about it is that it is well-moisturized.
It’s obviously horrifying right now, but it wasn’t meant to be realistic or beautiful; it was just meant to show one way that live tissue could be attached to a robotic undercarriage.
That is, in fact, what a Terminator T-100 model has, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Skin-covered robots could do a lot of helpful things besides going back in time to ruin the future of people.
They said that “cultured skin” could heal itself and have biological sensors like ours that make it responsive to touch. This could be useful in medical settings or when people are interacting with each other.
Also Read: This Robot That Looks Like a Person Can Kind of Drive Cars
But only if it can stay alive and move around like our skin does when we use it every day. Part of the point of the paper is to show that there is a way to connect and control something that could be used on or as a face.
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