A team of scientists have designed a robotic chameleon.

With its waddling motion and googley eyes, the robot has the capability to perform a chameleon’s most compelling trait: the ability to change colour.

According to an article in Smithsonian Magazine, this device could pave the way for future innovations in the military field such as new camouflage wear.

The changes in the robot’s colour are controlled by heater strips. Designed by scientists in South Korea, the robot also has sensors on its underbelly which sense the colour that it is traversing over. 

This data is sent to a control unit which triggers the heaters that work in tandem with the chameleon’s skin. The skin of the robot which is formed of liquid crystal ink then replicates the surrounding colour setting to the best of its ability.

“It’s walking around and also changing color at the same time. So it’s kind of like a full working chameleon,” says Seung Hwan Ko, a mechanical engineer at Seoul National University in South Korea and an author of the study.

The team hope to build another creature that is renowned for its ability to change colour in the form of an octopus. 

Watch the robotic chameleon in action in this video below: