Robots now have “living” skin that resembles human skin in terms of being water-repellent, self-healing and having a realistic fleshy appearance.
The Future is Here
According to BGR, Japanese researchers developed a “living skin analogue” that functions similarly to human skin using human skin cells. The lab-created skin was discovered to repel water and mend itself when harmed with minor wounds and abrasions, much like live organisms. It also successfully replicated the look and feel of real human skin.
Robots are usually made up of nails and not sugar. They have practically made their way into the living by this new robot skin. It even has sweat glands, and hair follicles to make it more lifelike. Though, what kind of amino acid is produced in their skin or DNA?
The bots today are really out of this world. Ancient Greek philosophers could not have dreamed of this coming together. Even if the robot skin is still a prototype, we’re still nearing the future as each passing day.
In a publication detailing the work, the researchers described how they combined collagen and human dermal fibroblasts to produce a skin solution. After immersing a robotic finger in the liquid, they saw how it closely shaped to the three-jointed robotic body part to resemble a real human finger.
The study’s lead author, professor Shoji Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo, thinks that living skin is the “ultimate solution” for giving humanoid robots a realistic appearance because the material used to make the skin replica was developed to have the same visual texture and special abilities that we would anticipate of skin on living organisms.
Humanoids should feel at ease dealing with people, especially in the healthcare and service sectors. They acknowledge that having a human-like appearance is crucial for making robots more approachable and relatable, and they point out that they could still add features like hair follicles, nails, and sweat glands to further perfect the skin’s appearance.
Robotics is no longer the stuff of science fiction, and it has been developing quickly lately. Engineered Arts has already shown a lifelike humanoid robot dubbed Ameca, but not everyone was sure how to feel about it, especially those who had ever watched an episode of HBO’s Westworld. Elon Musk is working toward revealing a Tesla Bot prototype this year.
Crazy or Innovative? You be the judge.