A soft-bodied robot with silicone skin and colorful veins can blend into its surroundings — or stick out. Pumping dyes through tiny canals just underneath the synthetic skin helps disguise or reveal the rubbery robot, researchers report in the Aug. 17 Science.
Layers of the color-changing silicone skin could be glued to robots for search and rescue missions, where tracking and locating machines is key.
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