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Great, Now They're Hiding In Plain Sight: Squishy Octopus Robot Can Change Colors To Blend Into Surroundings

August 17, 2012 / camo, dammit harvard you're creeping up my shit-list!, hiding in plain sight, i'm mad as hell and i'm not gonna take this anymore!, not cool, octopus, oh great, robots, super now we won't even be able to keep track of them, wonderful really, wtf did i just watch, you set that thing on fire and you do it NOW

color-changing-octopus-robot.jpg

Researchers at Harvard University have developed a squishy octopus-like robot that can have different colored dyes pumped through its skin to change colors, then remain motionless until you walk by and HELLO, FACEHUGGER.

The machine was made from silicon-based polymers, and its movement was driven by air pumping through tiny cylinders in its four "legs".


The camouflage-bots are covered in a network of tiny channels. As different dyes are pumped in, the robots can quickly change their appearance.

As well as changing colour, hot or cold fluids can be pumped into robots, enabling them to be thermally camouflaged, and fluorescent liquids allow them to glow in the dark.

Currently, the fluid is pulled in from a reservoir, but in the future it could be incorporated into the robot's body.

Wow, not only color-camouflaged, but thermally camouflaged too? Now even Predators won't be able to hunt them. You know, it's times like this that I wish NASA had sent me to Mars instead of that stupid rover.

Hit the jump for a video of the octobot's color-changing in action.

Thanks to benn, Pogonphile, Sydney, Thel200ster, Essi and K-Crazy!, who agree it should be illegal to make camouflaged robots.

There are Comments

  • Looks great for any real world application that requires small clumsy fragile rubbery robots. Tiny dusters? Lent gatherers?

  • Somewhere in DARPA, a general is drooling over this...

  • lorrrd

    Thx again 4 scientifying us ! Dang bots will climb straight in our livers via nano-tech -
    SH... thats what happened 2 Mr.Jobbs ? Poor fooker = sell-out to pentagonia didnt saved lousy Arghses , butt therefore T-Cruise will become Darwinist , i heard !

  • If it could talk, Scruffy can only imagine it begging for death.

  • BillGatesIsYourDaddy

    So...they already had a predetermined color of dye in a reservoir ready to pump into it? They knew what the color of the leaf is so they already mixed the color and pumped it into the the squishy thing.

    That's like saying...."hey, that wall is blue. let me paint this paper the same color before sticking it to the wall." I wouldn't actually call that impressive. Home Depot has been matching colors for years.

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