Fig. 5: Design and characterization of the chameleon tongue inspired (CTI) robot.
From: Programmable adhesion and morphing of protein hydrogels for underwater robots
a Schematic illustration of a chameleon hunting an insect through elongating its adhesive tongue. Created with BioRender.com. b Schematic process of the CTI robot capturing a prey from a distance in water. Illumination with an infrared (IR) light increases temperature (T) of the hydrogel above its softening temperature (Ts), and subsequent application of a magnetic field (M) allows morphing of the hydrogel to adhere to an object for lifting operation. c Experimental demonstration of the robotic tongue mimicking capture of a prey from a distance underwater. d The underwater adhesion force between two objects versus the elongation strain of the robotic tongue. e Photographs showing the elongation process of the robotic tongue, and demonstrating that inhomogeneous deformation occurred in the middle section of the tongue when it was overstretched. f Upon IR light irradiation, the extended tongue first bent 90° counterclockwise and then 180° clockwise with the change in the direction of the magnetic field. Data in (d) are presented as mean ± s.d. of n = 3 independent samples, with individual data points shown as black dots. Data in (c–e) are representative of two independent experiments. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
