Inspired by the chameleon's ability to change skin color, a worm-like robot, which is able to change its color to adapt to the environment, was developed by a research team led by Du Xuemin from Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

According to Du, structural coloration contributes to the chameleon's ability to change its skin color. It is the production after the interaction between microscopically structured surface and visible lights.

There are rows of arranged nanocrystals in the robot's upper skin, between which the distance changes as the skin tighten or loosen. The refractive index of lights thus is tuned following the changes in nanocrystals.

The robot can sense the changing environment and is able to exhibit dynamic color alternation and programmable locomotion. Based on the structural coloration of the creature, scientists designed a periodic structure and asymmetric friction to ensure its fast color alteration (less than one second) and programmable shape transformation.

Such achievements are expected to be further applied in sensing, communication, and disguise for soft robotics in the near future.

The findings have recently been published in the international journal of science and technology Matter.