Engineers in Japan are looking to create robots specifically designed to mimic human vocalizations – the smile.
They’ve created a face mask from human skin cells and attached it to a robot with a broaching method that hides the bond and is versatile enough to turn a sick smile into a grimace or a squishy smile.
The effect is something between the terrifying masks of Hannibal Lecter and the claymation figure Gumby.
But scientists say the prototypes pave the way for more sophisticated robots, with both elastic and strong outer layers to provide protection beyond making the device look more humanoid.
Beyond expression, the “skin equivalent,” as researchers call it, made from living skin cells in a lab, can also reduce scarring and irritation and self-heal, according to a study published June 25. Journal Cellular Studies Body Science.
“Human-like faces and expressions improve communication and empathy in human-robot interactions, making robots more effective in health care, service and collaboration roles,” said Shoji Takeuchi, an instructor at the University of Tokyo and the study’s top researcher. In an electronic mail.
The analysis comes as robots become more ubiquitous on factory floors.
According to the World Federation of Robotics, there are 3.9 million commercial robots working on autos and electronics meeting strains and alternative painting settings in 2022.
A subgroup of holistic robotic maintainers includes so-called humanoids, machines designed with two arms and two legs that allow them to work in environments that were built for human workers, such as factories, rather than Also in hospitality, state aid and education.
Carsten Heer, a spokesperson for the federation, said that humanoids were “an exciting area of development”, but cluster market adoption could be complex, and hindered by cost.
However, in October 2023, the Chinese executive introduced a goal of mass producing humanoids by 2025, which it estimated would significantly increase its business productivity.
For many years, robot engineers have experimented with clothing, in hopes of finding something that could protect a robot’s complex equipment but be comfortable and shiny enough for large-scale use.
The researchers noted in the paper that if a robot’s skin becomes scarred or scratched, it could cause the device to malfunction, making the ability to self-repair an “important feature” for humanoid robots.
The brochure’s skin attachment mode advances the nascent garden of “biohybrid” robotics, which integrates mechanical engineering with genetic and tissue engineering, said Kevin Lynch, director of the Center for Robotics and Biosystems at Northwestern University.
“This study is an innovative contribution to the problem of connecting artificial skin to underlying materials,” said mentor Lynch, adding, “Living skin could help us achieve the holy grail of self-healing skin in biohybrid robots.”
He said the study does not take into account how the robot’s skin would heal on its own without external backup.
For such robots, the content challenge extends to authenticity — finding ways to fill the device with features that make it look and behave like a human, such as the power to smile.
Scientists, including Menter Takeuchi and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo, have been working with lab-grown human skin for years.
In 2022, the research group developed a robotic finger wrapped in living skin, allowing the device’s digits to bend like a human finger, potentially giving it the ability to perform more precise tasks.
Mentor Takeuchi’s team attempted to attach mini-hooks to the surface, but they were torn as the robot swayed. So the group set out to mimic ligaments, microscopic ropes of drop tissue that connect bones.
Participants in the group drilled small, V-shaped holes in the robot and applied a gel containing collagen, which closed the holes and bonded the substitute pores and skin to the robot.
“This approach integrates traditional rigid robots with soft, biological skin, making them more ‘human-like’,” said Yifan Wang, a staff advisor in the Faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological College, Singapore. Which mimic “soft robots”. Biological organism.
External binding additionally grants biohybrid robots the possibility of sentience, taking science one step closer to science-fiction.
Mentor Wang said, “This may provide opportunities for robots to understand humans and interact with them safely.”
The faces of robots with artificial skin in mentor Takeuchi’s laboratory do not have the ability to sense touch or temperature changes or alternative external stimuli.
Mentor Takeuchi mentioned that this is his upcoming analysis goal.
“Our goal is to create skin that mimics the functionality of real skin by slowly building up essential components such as blood vessels, nerves, sweat glands, sebaceous glands and hair follicles,” he said.
In the playground of neural mechanisms that generate sensation in the human body, a robot’s electronics would need to energize a sensor signal — a construct that mentor Wang noted required a lot of time and analysis. Will be required.
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