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Detachment Behavior of Gecko Toe in Functional Strategies for Bionic Toe

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Abstract

Geckos can efficiently navigate complex terrains due to their multi-level adhesive system that is present on their toes. The setae are responsible for the gecko’s extraordinary adhesion and have garnered wide attention from the scientific community. The majority of the reported works in the literature that have dealt with the peeling models mainly focus on the gecko hierarchical adhesive system, with limited attention given to investigating the influence of gecko toe structure on the detachment. Along these lines, to gain a deeper understanding of the rapid and effortless detachment abilities of gecko toes, the peeling behavior of gecko toes on vertical surfaces was primarily investigated in this work. More specifically, the detachment time of a single toe on a smooth acrylic plate was measured to be 0.41 ± 0.21 s. Moreover, it was observed that the toe assumed a "U"-shaped structure upon complete detachment. Additionally, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) models for three different types of gecko toes were developed to simulate both the displacement-peel and the moment-peel modes. Increasing the segmentation of the adhesive layer led to a gradual decrease in the resultant force, as well as the normal and tangential components. Lastly, a gecko-inspired toe model was constructed and powered by Shape Memory Alloy (SMA). A systematic comparison between the vertical drag separation and the outward flip separation was also conducted. From our analysis, it was clearly demonstrated that outward peel separation significantly necessitated the reduction of the peeling force, thus confirming the advantageous nature of the outward motion in gecko toe detachment. Our data not only contribute to a deeper understanding of the gecko detachment behavior but also offer valuable insights for the advancement of the wall-climbing robot feet.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures (1005-IZD23002-25), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51861135306, 51875281), the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Doctoral Student Short-Term Overseas Visiting Program (230304DF05). This study was carried out in accordance with the Guide for Laboratory Animal Management Ordinance of China. The experimental procedures were approved by the Jiangsu Association for Animal Science (Jiangsu, China).

Funding

Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures, 1005-IZD23002-25, Aihong Ji, National Natural Science Foundation of China, 51861135306, Aihong Ji, 51875281, Aihong Ji, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Doctoral Student Short-Term Overseas Visiting Program, 230304DF05, Qingfei Han.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lab of Locomotion Bioinspiration and Intelligent Robots, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Qingfei Han, Wei Wang, Huan Shen, Xincheng Feng, Haoran Zhang, Qian Li, Yi Sun & Aihong Ji

  2. Laboratory of Intelligent Machines, School of Energy Systems, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, 53850, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Qingfei Han & Huapeng Wu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control for Aerospace Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Aihong Ji

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  1. Qingfei Han
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Han, Q., Wang, W., Shen, H. et al. Detachment Behavior of Gecko Toe in Functional Strategies for Bionic Toe. J Bionic Eng 21, 707–717 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-023-00460-9

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