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...small, swallowable prey, says Jonathan Rossiter at the University of Bristol, who wasn’t involved in the work.

Seung-Kyun Kang at Seoul National University in South Korea and his colleagues built the robot using a silicone composite they created that degrades quickly after it is exposed to UV light and heat. The robot is about 3 centimetres long, has four legs and moves using pneumatic air that allows it to scrunch up and scoot across a surface like an inchworm.

The researchers simulated a mission to test the robot where it had to scout out an unknown environment and then destroy itself before it got into enemy hands. The robot first took temperature readings from a heat gun and then moved to a different zone using photodetectors to sense the light of a UV lamp. In a third zone, it alerted the researchers when temperature levels became too high.

To complete its mission, the robot found and moved onto a hot plate heated to 120°C (248°F). The sequence of UV exposure and heat caused the robot’s body to disintegrate into an oily fluid in about an hour.

The researchers write that soft robots like this could have applications as “hardware security in military operations like scouting, invasion, or transport”, since they can deteriorate before being recovered by enemies.

Matthew Johnson-Roberson at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania says that the robot is more prototype than field-ready, but the study presents interesting research nonetheless. “Reconnaissance and data collection [by the robot] I think is optimistic,” he says. “The researchers are selling a vision that it would be doing spying maybe in 20 years.”

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