Researchers from the Brije Universiteit Brussel have created a robot which has a self healing skin, making humanoid robots an entirely believable concept.
These robots are created mainly to make it the creation of human prosthetics possible, using polymers that resemble jelly, melting them together then cooling the material to create human-like skin.
The development of the robots may throw up visions of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, but, it would seem it is possible to create an even more humanlike robot that we would ever imagine out of cinematography.
“The outcome of the research opens up promising perspectives,” Professor Bram Vanderborght of BruBotics and Flanders said. “You won’t believe how soon experts reckon we’ll be fighting killer robots. Robots can not only be made lighter and safe, they will also be able to work longer independently without requiring constant repairs.”
Miraculously, tests to see just how human the robots are included stabbing the robot’s hand with a knife. Just like human skin, the would healed, even when the cut was deep.
However the researchers did suggest it is also possible to create killer robots, which isn’t such a positive application of the technology.
Peter Singer, a strategist for the New America Foundation, told the Sun the US military needs to be prepared for wars against killer robots.
“It’s not just when is it going to happen, but we don’t yet know is it going to privilege the offence or defence, what are going to be the effects of it,” he added.
Professor Healey, senior research scholar in cyber conflict at Columbia University shares Singer’s ideas. He said to the House Armed Services Committee that the creation of cyborg armies of killers will happen in the coming decade.
“The part of it that particularly worries me the most is that on the defensive side many people are thinking that artificial intelligence, new heuristics, better analytics and automation are going to help the defence, that if only we can roll these things out faster we will be better and the system will be more stable,” Healey said.
