3D printed bio-inspired adhesives, friction force generation by modulating stiffness

For over a decade the use of bio inspired adhesives have been explored to achieve high reversable attachment on a wide range of surfaces. Based on the fibrillar adhesive toepads of geckos, many patterned adhesives have been produced that are able to form and preserve contact with rigid and smooth substrates. But on other types of surfaces, such...

Anisotropic Stiffness Adhesives for High Shear Forces on Soft Substrates

Reversible attachment on soft substrates is useful in a range of applications, including soft robotics and soft-tissue surgical instrumentation. On rigid substrates, the use of micropatterned adhesives has been extensively explored. It has been shown that surface micropatterns provide conformability, thereby enabling the formation and...

Friction Forces of Micropatterned Elastomers with Carbon Fibre Fabric Reinforcement on Soft Substrates

Gecko-inspired adhesives mimic the external structure of geckos with micropatterned surfaces and the internal structure by fabric reinforcement in soft elastomer adhesive pads. Previous research measured the friction forces of synthetic adhesives, with either an external or internal structure, mainly on hard substrates. Much less is known about...

Pull-off and friction forces of micropatterned elastomers on soft substrates: The effects of pattern length scale and stiffness

The adhesiveness of biological micropatterned adhesives primarily relies on their geometry (e.g., feature size, architecture) and material properties (e.g., stiffness). Over the last few decades, researchers have been mimicking the geometry and material properties of biological micropatterned adhesives. The performance of these biomimetic...

On the mimicking of geckos and tree frogs for adhering to soft substrates

<b>Background</b>: Soft-tissue grip is a challenge in minimally invasive surgery. Grasping instruments used in clinical practice require high pinch forces in order to generate sufficient grip for manipulating soft tissue without slipping.<br/>In nature, several animals employ adhesion in order to grip on, not only hard, but also soft substrates....