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Japanese Scientists Create Robot Skin That Can Smile. Japanese researchers have found a way to give humanoid robots skin that can be pulled into a smile. Taking inspiration from human skin ligaments, the team, led by Professor Shoji Takeuchi of the University of Tokyo included special perforations in a robot face, which helped a layer of skin take hold. Their research could initially be useful in the cosmetics industry and help train plastic surgeon. In the future, it could offer increased mobility, self-healing abilities, embedded sensing capabilities, and an increasingly lifelike appearance. Takeuchi is a pioneer in the field of biohybrid robotics, where biology and mechanical engineering meet. So far, his lab, the Biohybrid Systems Laboratory, has created mini robots that walk using biological muscle tissue, 3D-printed lab-grown meat, and engineered skin that can heal. It was during research on the last of these items that Dr. Takeuchi felt the need to take the idea of robotic skin further. Previous methods to attach skin tissue to solid surfaces involved things like mini anchors or hooks but these limited the kinds of surfaces that could receive skin coatings and could cause damage during motion. By carefully engineering small perforations instead, essentially any shape of the surface can have skin applied to it. The trick the team employed was to use a special collagen gel for adhesion, which is naturally viscous so difficult to feed into the minuscule perforations - and “plasma treatment”. Takeuchi and his team hope the “robot skin” could help in areas such as drug development, skin ageing, cosmetics, surgical procedures, plastic surgery, and more.