Days After Elon Musk Deemed University Of Tokyo's Idea 'Pointless,' Scientists Develop Smiling Robot With Living Skin

Researchers from the University of Tokyo have successfully attached living skin tissue to robotic faces, enabling them to “smile.”

What Happened: The smiling robot, featured in a study published by Cell Reports Physical Science, is the culmination of a decade-long research by Shoji Takeuchi and his team on the fusion of biological and artificial machines, reported Reuters.

The scientists cultivated human skin cells in the form of a face and manipulated it into a broad smile using ligament-like attachments.

Living tissue, Takeuchi pointed out, has several benefits over metals and plastics, such as energy efficiency and self-repair capabilities. “By attaching these actuators and anchors, it became possible to manipulate living skin for the first time,” he added.

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The team intends to incorporate more elements into the lab-grown skin in the future, including a circulatory system and nerves.

This could pave the way for safer testing platforms for cosmetics and drugs absorbed through the skin, and more realistic and functional coverings for robots.

“There’s still a bit of that creepiness to it,” Takeuchi said, adding, “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.”

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Why It Matters: Earlier this month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk dismissed the idea of self-healing, human skin-wrapped robots, by calling the innovation “pointless.”

Musk’s comment was in response to an earlier innovation from the University of Tokyo, which allowed for self-healing in robots.

Musk’s Tesla is currently developing a humanoid robot named Optimus. This robot, designed to resemble a human, has moving hands capable of performing various tasks in a factory setting. However, it lacks any form of skin.

In June, Musk said that two Optimus robots are currently working in Tesla’s Fremont factory, where they remove cells from the end of the production line and place them in containers.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.