Smiling robot face is made from living human skin cells

A technique for attaching a skin made from living human cells to a robotic framework could give robots the ability to emote and communicate better

By James Woodford

25 June 2024

This robot face can smile

Takeuchi et al. (CC-BY-ND)

A smiling face made from living human skin could one day be attached to a humanoid robot, allowing machines to emote and communicate in a more life-like way, say researchers. Its wrinkles could also prove useful for the cosmetics industry.

The living tissue is a cultured mix of human skin cells grown in a collagen scaffold and placed on top of a 3D-printed resin base. Unlike previous similar experiments, the skin also contains the equivalent of the ligaments that, in humans and other animals, are buried in the layer of tissue beneath the skin, holding it in place and giving it incredible strength and flexibility.

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Michio Kawai at Harvard University and his colleagues call these ligament equivalents “perforation-type anchors” because they were created by perforating the robot’s resin base and allowing tiny v-shaped cavities to fill with living tissue. This, in turn, helps the robot skin stay in place.

The team put the skin on a smiling robotic face, a few centimetres wide, which is moved by rods connected to the base. It was also attached to a similarly sized 3D shape in the form of a human head (see below), but this couldn’t move.