Will robots one day have living human skin? Researchers have been exploring this question and have come up with some rather disturbing results.
I think it's fair to say that no one would confuse any current robot, no matter how advanced, with another human being. Even when a company like Tesla or Figure creates a humanoid robot, it's about capturing our overall shape, not replicating the expressiveness of our features.
But a recently published study by researchers from the University of Tokyo and Harvard seems to take us one step further in that direction. The researchers were specifically interested in trying to replicate the network of ligaments that connect our skin to the underlying muscle and tissue.
In this case, they wanted to create skin that would stick to an artificial substrate and then be able to be manipulated to do things like smile without tearing or distorting. As you can see, the results were pretty creepy-looking, or as Devin put it, “absolute nightmare fuel.” But in principle, it seems to work: this could be a viable method for attaching living skin to robotic landing gear.
Press play to learn (and watch) more, and then tell us what you think in the comments!
