Japanese Scientists Create Smiling Robot with Living Skin Tissue

Japanese scientists have made a groundbreaking advancement by attaching living skin tissue to robotic faces, enabling them to “smile.” This breakthrough, with potential applications in cosmetics and medicine, marks a significant step toward creating more life-like robots.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo successfully grew human skin cells in the shape of a face, using ligament-like attachments to pull the skin into a wide grin. The result, though somewhat eerie, represents a decade of research by lead researcher Shoji Takeuchi and his lab on combining biological and artificial machines.

“By attaching these actuators and anchors, it became possible to manipulate living skin for the first time,” Takeuchi explained. The study, published last month in Cell Reports Physical Science, demonstrates the advantages of living tissue over metals and plastics, such as the energy efficiency of brains and muscles and skin’s ability to repair itself.

Looking ahead, the researchers plan to integrate additional elements into the lab-grown skin, including a circulatory system and nerves. This could lead to safer testing platforms for cosmetics and drugs absorbed through the skin and provide more realistic and functional coverings for robots.

However, Takeuchi acknowledges the challenge of overcoming the “uncanny valley”—the unsettling feeling people experience when encountering nearly human-like robots. “There’s still a bit of that creepiness to it,” he noted. “I think that making robots out of the same materials as humans and having them show the same expressions might be one key to overcoming the uncanny valley.”