Stress distribution and contact area measurements of a gecko toe using a high-resolution tactile sensor

被引：59

作者：

Eason, Eric V. ^{[1
]}

Hawkes, Elliot W. ^{[2
]}

Windheim, Marc ^{[3
]}

Christensen, David L. ^{[2
]}

Libby, Thomas ^{[4
]}

Cutkosky, Mark R. ^{[2
]}

机构：

[1] Stanford Univ, Dept Appl Phys, Stanford, CA 94305 USA

[2] Stanford Univ, Dept Mech Engn, Stanford, CA 94305 USA

[3] Tech Univ Munich, Inst Prod Dev, D-85748 Garching, Germany

[4] Univ Calif Berkeley, Ctr Interdisciplinary Bioinspirat Educ & Res, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

来源：

BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS | 2015年 / 10卷 / 01期

基金：

美国国家科学基金会;

关键词：

gecko; adhesion; stress distribution; contact area; FRICTIONAL ADHESION; FORCE; MECHANISMS; TOKAY; REPTILIA; DYNAMICS; BEARING; ENERGY; ROBUST; ARRAY;

D O I：

10.1088/1748-3190/10/1/016013

中图分类号：

T [工业技术];

学科分类号：

08 ;

摘要：

The adhesive systems of geckos have been widely studied and have been a great source of bioinspiration. Load-sharing (i.e. preventing stress concentrations through equal distribution of loads) is necessary to maximize the performance of an adhesive system, but it is not known to what extent load-sharing occurs in gecko toes. In this paper, we present in vivo measurements of the stress distribution and contact area on the toes of a tokay gecko (Gekko gecko) using a custom tactile sensor with 100 mu m spatial resolution. We found that the stress distributions were nonuniform, with large variations in stress between and within lamellae, suggesting that load-sharing in the tokay gecko is uneven. These results may be relevant to the understanding of gecko morphology and the design of improved synthetic adhesive systems.

引用

页数：16