Raphael Thys
Living human skin grown around a robotic finger can bend with the finger (shown) and even heal itself when cut. Shoji Takeuchi
A robotic finger covered with artificial skin tissue cultured from living cells has been successfully developed by a group of scientists led by Shoji Takeuchi, a University of Tokyo professor in machine engineering.
The skin can be regenerated if damaged. It is likely to lead to the development of robots whose skin has a similar texture to that of humans.
The robot finger is about one centimeter in diameter and about five centimeters long. Its surface is covered with cells cultured from human skin. The scientists devised the culture method to produce two parts that form the skin: the epidermis for the surface and the dermis beneath it.
The cultured skin is 1.5 millimeters thick. It is strong enough that it won’t break even if the finger inside is bent or stretched at any of its three joints. If the surface is cut or damaged, the skin can repair itself when a collagen sheet is stuck to it and it is immersed in a culture solution.
The skin is not for long-term use for the time being, because it has no blood vessels to supply it with nutrition.
“We’d like to upgrade it by adding nerves and blood vessels in the future,” Takeuchi said.
“It’s a daring project,” said Osaka University professor Hiroshi Ishiguro, a specialist in robotics. “It is an important step to build a robot that looks and feels like a human. Maybe it can even break through the problems posed by silicon rubber and other materials that have been applied in such projects.”