eMvoy Blog: What's New in US Manufacturing Competitiveness

Earlier in the month we covered a story about SpinyBot, the gecko-inspired surveillance robot that can climb up walls using toes with little climbing spines all over them. Now engineers at BAE Systems have invented a new type of plastic super-adhesive also inspired by the tiny wall-crawler. It's called Synthetic Gecko.

The scientists involved claim that a relatively small square of this new adhesive could attach a family car to your ceiling (provided your ceiling were strong enough). And it's got nothing to do with glue-- the plastic doesn't feel sticky when you touch it. BAE's press release explains the science:

The gecko gets its ability to stick without glue from the soles of its feet which are patterned with millions of tiny hairs with split ends. At the tip of each split is a mushroom shaped cap less than one-thousandth of a millimetre across. These ensure the gecko’s toes are always in very close contact with the surface beneath – so close that molecular forces of attraction create the grip.

The researchers used ordinary photolithography techniques-- the common etching technique used to engrave silicon chips-- to give their polymer a coating of tiny "hairs" with mushroom shaped ends. This created the ideal environment for the attractive forces necessary to generate super grippiness. Applications of the new technology could include repairing aircraft or fuel tankers, making super-grippy tires, making safety harnesses, etc. etc.

Very cool, potentially industry-changing stuff. We'll know Synthetic Gecko has arrived when we see it repurposed, a la the velcro wall, at carnivals and fraternity rush week events. Say in ten years?