Scientists have made a robotic advancement that is opening the door to robot camouflage, as well as new ways to deliver medicines.
In a paper that appeared in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces:, scientists outline exactly how they managed to make an elastic material for soft robots that changes color when it stretches.
While most robots are rigid and stiff, constructed of hard metal parts, many researchers have been working on ways to soften the material composition of robots.
Many bio-inspired robotic advancements taking place could potentially bridge the gap between today’s inflexible varieties and the fluid varieties. Researchers from the Department of Chemistry at Duke University have been working with machines that pump gases and liquids into soft robots which inflates and changes their shapes to create desired movements. Professor Stephen L. Craig of Duke’s organic and materials chemistry department, and his colleagues wanted to take advantage of the molecular changes that occur when a robot curls or twists, so they incorporated color-changing compounds in their robots’ material that are activated when stretched.
What this did was create a robot capable of camouflaging itself as it moved, and because the color change is most intense where the strain on the material is highest, it also helps point out where the robot is vulnerable to breaking.
The researchers note that other compounds could also be added to release drug molecules, make a robot glow or repair the material when it ruptures.
Watch the camouflaging robot below.
