Artificial camouflage for robots. By "artificial camouflage" here, they are talking about imitating the camouflage of animals that can dynamically change their camouflage as the move about their environment, for example cephalopods.

The system developed here uses something called thermochromic liquid crystal. "Thermochromic" just means something changes color depending on temperature. So the key is controlling temperature which is done by stacking multilayer silver nanowire heaters. Being able to accurately control all of the nanowires allows fine patterns to be expressed.

It occurred to me that while this might be good for visible light camouflage, a military enemy with night vision equipment is easily going to see the heat due to the infrared light it produces, which far from providing camouflage will make the thing you're trying to hide pop out.

Biomimetic chameleon soft robot with artificial crypsis and disruptive coloration skin

#robotics #camouflage