This smiling robot has a face covered in ‘living’ skin | CNN

CNN — The soft, pink blob stares at the camera with glassy eyes —before pulling its face into a dimpled smile. While it might look like the stuff of nightmares, this tiny robot covered in living skin could mark a step forward in the quest to make robots more human-like. It’s the work of researchers in Japan, who say they have discovered a new way to bind living skin tissue to a mechanical robotic surface. The team was led by Professor Shoji Takeuchi, of the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo. Previously, he developed a “living” robot skin — using collagen, a fibrous protein in human skin, and human dermal fibroblasts, the main cell type in connective tissue — that could be applied to a robotic finger and bend without breaking. For its new technique, the team was inspired by the natural structure of human skin ligaments to create “anchors” using a collagen gel applied to small, V-shaped holes on the robot’s surface. The new method provides “a more seamless and du...