New Robotic Skin Can Make Itself Near Invisible By Copying An Octopus' Camouflage Mechanism
The material takes a page out of Nature's book, using a camouflage system that lets it look like a rock, plant, or even a pile of dirt.
Ever thought about Harry Potter¡¯s cloak of invisibility and wondered how cool it could be to have something like that? Something that would let you hide in plain sight, so you can avoid the embarrassment when you fart in the elevator. Well, we¡¯re on the verge of getting something even cooler, except it¡¯s for our future robots.
In a recent study, researchers from Cornell University have shown how they managed to create something they call a ¡°morphing silicone-based membrane¡±. In essence, it¡¯s a synthetic layer of ¡°skin¡± made up of silicone, rubber and mesh, that can imitate its surroundings. The idea for the material came from one of nature¡¯s best organic cloaking devices, octopus skin.
Where other research attempts to create devices that can bend light around them, thus rendering a space near them invisible, the Cornell team was attempting something much more basic ¨C near-perfect camouflage. Cephalopods are capable of changing the colour and texture of their skin to blend in with rocks, sand, and plants along the ocean floor, to both, hide from and hunt, prey. The team¡¯s materials expert Itai Cohen told the Washington Post that watching these creatures initially gave him the idea.¡°You are staring at this coral reef. You have no idea [an octopus] is there. It changes colour. It changes texture. It appears out of nowhere.¡±
The team trying to replicate this versatile camouflage effect with silicone, a material commonly used in soft robotics. To that end, they managed to enlist Roger Hanlon, an expert in cephalopods from the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. It was Hanlon that pointed out the creature¡¯s papillae, small round bumps usually found on animal organs, but also present on an octopus¡¯ skin. And the main difference is, octopodes are one of the only creatures that can instantaneously extend or retract these papillae at will. This, in turn, helps them mimic the texture of objects around them, instead of just copying their colour.
That¡¯s why the Cornell team layered silicone and mesh, allowing their robotic skin to change its shape by using air to fill and deflate pockets in the material. Fibers embedded in the silicone then improve the camouflage by adding texture.
Of course, there¡¯s not really any intended application for the material, but the scientists believe it could be widely used in soft robotics. But who knows what else we could see it applied to in future?
