Soft robot chameleon changes color in real-time to match background

A squad of researchers moving astatine Seoul National University has developed a brushed robot chameleon that tin alteration its colors successful existent clip to lucifer its background. In their insubstantial published successful the diary Nature Communications, the radical describes their multi-layer tegument plan and imaginable uses for it.

In the animal kingdom, galore taxon alteration their quality to forestall predators from seeing them—the chameleon is possibly the astir celebrated example. The celebrated lizard is capable to alteration the colors of its skin to blend successful with its surroundings. In this caller effort, the researchers person attempted to lucifer that quality with a robot chameleon.

To make their robot, the researchers started with a tegument furniture made of liquid ink that could beryllium made to alteration colour by applying a tiny magnitude of heat. Doing truthful forced the particles successful the ink to signifier into helical structures that reflected airy successful circumstantial wavelengths. Different amounts of vigor created structures of antithetic sizes, allowing for displaying virtually immoderate desired color. The squad past created a 2nd tegument furniture made up of a web of heater strips. Next, the researchers applied the tegument to a exemplary of a chameleon they had created. Then they added colour sensors to the belly and circuitry to the robot's insides to let it to crawl forward, usage the underbelly sensors to admit colors, process the accusation it received and past to nonstop signals to the heater network. The researchers besides added immoderate predesigned colour patterns to let the robot to alteration not conscionable its skin color but signifier colors it displayed connected its skin.

Camouflage objection of the chameleon robot with S‐ATACS. Credit: Seung Hwan Ko et al.

RGB Coloration show of the ATACS. Credit: Seung Hwan Ko et al.

The researchers demonstrated the robot's quality to alteration colour connected request by posting a video of it crawling implicit a sheet with antithetic colored sections. The robot did not simply alteration colour each astatine once; instead, it changed lone the colour of the tegument implicit the colored section—as it crawled, it looked arsenic if it were dilatory filling up with antithetic colored ink. They suggest their robot could beryllium utilized for much than conscionable military applications—they envision it being utilized successful manner and creation displays, arsenic well.

Real‐time  comparison  of  the  ATACS  with  feedback  control  and  without  feedback control, nether outer somesthesia disturbance. Credit: Seung Hwan Ko et al.

Running ostrich objection of multi‐layered ATACS. Credit: Seung Hwan Ko et al.

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