Meeting Abstract
Representatives of several animal groups such as insects, arachnids, and lizards are able to attach to and to walk on smooth vertical surfaces and even on the ceiling. This ability is due to highly specialized fibrillar attachment devices located at their legs. The biomimetic transfer of such systems into industrial applications is a very challenging task, since biological systems are far too complex for copying them exactly. That is why intensive comparative studies are required to find out which structural and mechanical features of real biological systems are essential for biomimetics. In general, there are two different working strategies that aid in extracting that features of biological objects. The first strategy is based on a careful and detailed characterization of one particular biological system defined as a model object, here for example geckos. The second strategy is based on a comparative study of a large variety of biological objects, which possess similar functional systems that appeared independently in the course of biological evolution. In our opinion, the second approach is more promising for biomimetics, because structural similarities, which evolved independently in different lineages of organisms, may indicate some kind of “optimal” solution for this type of system. Moreover, a comparative approach aids in extracting essential features and abandoning less important ones for designing artificial adhesives. Although different, these two approaches are complementary and help in the biomimetic process.
