Bioinspired soft devices, which possess high adaptability to targeted objects, provide promising solutions for a variety of industrial and medical applications. However, achieving stable and switchable attachment to objects with curved, rough, and irregular surfaces remains difficult, particularly in dry and underwater environments. Here, a highly adaptive soft microstructured switchable adhesion device is presented, which is inspired by the geometric and material characteristics of the tiny denticles on the surface of an octopus sucker. The contact interface of the artificial octopus sucker (AOS) is imprinted with soft, microscale denticles that interact adaptably with highly rough or curved surfaces. Robust and controllable attachment of the AOS with soft microdenticles (AOS-sm) to dry and wet surfaces with diverse morphologies is achieved, allowing conformal attachment on curved and soft objects with high roughness. In addition, AOS-sms assembled with an octopus-arm-inspired soft actuator demonstrate reliable grasping and the transport of complex polyhedrons, rough objects, and soft, delicate, slippery biological samples.
Keywords: biomimetics; soft microdenticles; switchable adhesion; wet adhesion.
© 2022 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.