There’s a thin line between man and machine, and it’s only getting thinner. Intelligent algorithms are starting to perceive sights and sounds like human beings. Androids are taking more anthropomorphic forms, powered by actuators wrapped silicone and latex skins. Even these skins are becoming increasingly lifelike. Earlier this year, researchers created an artificial material that’s twice as sensitive as human skin. And this month, a team of Oxford professors proposed a provocative idea — grow human tissue on humanoid robots.
“Humanoid robots have the potential to closely mimic both the structure and the movements of the patient’s body.”
Pierre-Alexis Mouthuy and Andrew Carr
didn’t at first intend to delve into robotics. They’re biomedical
researchers, concerned with interactions between tissue and bone. But,
while studying strategies to repair tendon injuries through tissue
engineering, the pair realized they’d need to test their lab-grown
tissues in dynamic environments that simulate what it’d be like to be
stretched, pulled, and contracted by the human body.“The current bioreactor systems offered for that are still in their infancy and are relatively expensive,” Mouthuy told Digital Trends. “Therefore we have decided to look into designing our own bioreactor systems to solve this problem.”
In a review published this month in the journal Science Robotics, Mouthuy and Carr explore a the concept of growing human transplant tissue on “humanoid bioreactors.”
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