News, The fully adjustable nature of toes significantly aid gecko agility on different surfaces

The amazing adhesive property of the gecko toe has been researched, analysed and documented to a significant degree, but there has been little research on how a gecko is able to coordinate its many ‘sticky’ toes in agile motion. A recent research conducted in May 2020 explores the control function of gecko toes over surfaces of different vertical orientation, friction and roughness. It was found that all the gecko toes pointed forward to counteract the gravity force that induces slipping when running on low friction or high inclination surfaces. This orientation of the toes changed the areas of contact. The overall contact area remains the same, but is distributed across the toe surface differently. When placed on a surface featuring small rod-like protrusions, it was found that geckos would curl their toes slightly around the rods to get a better grip. Overall, geckos were able to increase their agility, maneuverability and speed across different surfaces by efficiently coordinating their toes to adapt to the environment. This discovery can offer significant insight for improvements to gecko-inspired designs and other biomimicry applications.

Learn more (opens external site)