(259f) The Fabrication of Dry Adhesives Mimicking the Gecko Adhesive System

In this study, we fabricate dry adhesives by mimicking the gecko fibrillar adhesive system using conventional as well as unconventional techniques to incorporate tilt into the fibrillar structures. Adhesion and friction forces are measured using a tribometer with the microfiber arrays sliding either in the tilt direction (i.e. ?gripping? direction) or against the tilt direction (i.e. ?releasing? direction). The results show anisotropic adhesion and friction forces depending upon the shear direction. Dragging the arrays in the direction of the tilt leads to strong adhesion and friction forces while shearing against the tilt direction results in low adhesion and friction forces. Potential applications of such a synthetic dry adhesive include reusable adhesive tapes and sticky pads on robotic appendages.