Abstract: Natural organisms have different techniques to avoid enemies, such as chameleon skin with innate camouflage ability to change with the surrounding environment. Inspired by this, a microfluidic biomimetic chameleon skin based on infrared (IR) information processing is proposed for active thermal camouflage in a dynamic infrared background. Microfluidic circulation in microcavities distributed under the skin is controlled by a thermal camouflage system. The structure and working principle of the biomimetic skin are introduced, and the thermal camouflage system is established and tested to explore the heat transfer characteristics between the skin and the fluid. The mechanism of collecting the background infrared information and regulating the skin temperature through the control signal generated by the infrared information processing system is illustrated. Furthermore, the dynamic thermal response of the skin is tested when transitioning between different temperature backgrounds, modeling the ambient temperature of the sand, woodland and lakes where chameleons live. The performance of the skin is evaluated by measuring the camouflage responding time of the skin to an external heat source. The results show that the chameleon biomimetic skin is naturally transitioned and matched by infrared information processing and microfluidics. The limitation that the conventional thermal camouflage technology cannot adapt to the dynamic combat environment is overcome and the weaknesses of a small camouflage band range and a single form of camouflage are resolved in this study, thus effectively improving the target’s survivability in combat.

Key words:  , Biomimetic skin , · Thermal camoufage , · Microfuidics , · Infrared , · Chameleon