Inspired by the octopus, researchers have developed an artificial skin that responds to pressure and emits light when stretched.

Credit: Rob Kurcoba/Cornell

Rob Shepherd at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and his colleagues made the skin (pictured) by combining layers of transparent electrode-containing hydrogels with stretchy silicone sheets embedded with various zinc sulfides. They added light-emitting metal compounds to the zinc sulfides, causing them to emit different colours in response to electrical excitement. The team rolled, folded and stretched the material by nearly 500% without disrupting light emission. And the more the material was stretched, the brighter the light.

The authors incorporated panels of their material into a crawling soft robot, allowing it to luminesce as the robot undulated and the skin stretched. Pressing on the material altered its capacitance — its stored electric charge — so the researchers say that the skin could have applications in touch-sensitive robotics.

Science 351, 1071–1074 (2016)