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Living Skin for Robots

posted July 1, 2024 #

Scientists have made a breakthrough in "soft robotics" - aka attaching skin-like tissue to mechanical parts. In this particular case, they've found a way to attach collagen gel to small V-shaped holes on the robotic surface that makes the whole endeavor feel more realistic and more resilient to breaking.

My knee jerk reaction is that I am not sure we need skin on robots. Can we just let robots be robots? I think the majority of people would be okay with that. If the intent here is to overcome the uncanny valley and make robots appear more humanlike.. couldn't we just give it some time and humans would naturally adjust?

In the grand scheme of developments lately, this doesn't seem to be so dire at first glance. It does make for a rather harrowing GIF.