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Silicone skin has been created for next-generation “companion robots.”

A Russian company called Promobot are working with a lab based in Vladivostok to build the ‘Robo-C-2’ robot which will be able to exhibit human-like facial expressions, with the company using skin, hair and eyes to create an “attractive” companion,

Petr Chegodayev, a sculptor and head of the lab told Russian media: “Our key task is to make anthropomorphic robots not just realistic but also attractive, to add a touch of aesthetic. We have all the necessary conditions for that here in Vladivostok, and I am sure that we will make a qualitative leap in the near future.”

It comes after the news that Promobot are reportedly willing to pay individuals up to £150,000 ($203,000) to licence their facial identity and voice to them rather than construct fictional faces.

In a statement, the company – who claim to be the biggest robotics firm in North and Eastern Europe – said: “Since 2019, we have been actively manufacturing and supplying humanoid robots to the market. Our new clients want to launch a large-scale project, and as for this, they need to license a new robot appearance to avoid legal delays. We can build a linguistic model based on popular phrases of a particular person – the robot will communicate and answer questions by analysing frequent expressions of the ‘original’ and using a certain context of knowledge of this person.”

Oleg Kivokurtsev, Promobot co-founder, told Russian state news agency TASS that they are planning to create 10 of these robots per month “with any appearance, for home and professional use