Scientists have developed a creepy robot that is able to respond to being touched by smiling, frowning and even grimacing.
The childlike humanoid was created by experts from Osaka University.
Named Affetto, the robot was first unveiled back in 2011 but has since been upgraded to incorporate synthetic skin.
The skin has sensors that can subtly detect changes in pressure, whether it is a light touch or a hard punch.
This “pain nervous system” was hooked up to the android robot child who was able to react to the sensations.
The researchers, led by Minoru Asada, explained: “Engineers and material scientists have developed a new tactile sensor and attached it to a child robot called Affetto that has a realistic face and body skeleton covered in artificial 'skin.'
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“Affetto can discriminate soft and hard touches from the detected signals, and studies show that attaching skin sensors to Affetto helps it avoid ‘pain.’”
While the latest additions have not been revealed yet, a creepy video of the robot from back in 2018 shows what it could look like.
The clip shows the robot pulling various facial expressions from grimacing, smiling and frowning.
Two years later, it has now been given a body with artificial skin covering the skeleton.
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Scientists hope the additions will make more “social” robots that can have a deeper interaction with humans.
Minoru unveiled the new upgrades at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on February 15.
It comes after a leading academic warned that legislation was needed to guard against the development of sex robots which can “implement rape scenarios”.
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