The production of reusable gecko-inspired dry adhesives has traditionally been done with complex nanofabrication methods such as lithography and PDMS casting. This article presents a way of producing and testing dry adhesive samples using consumer-grade AM machines and equipment typically available in a Makerspace. The samples produced exhibit adhesive properties depending on the preload and surface structure, and we conclude that consumer-grade AM is suitable for rapid prototyping and testing of dry adhesion. However, it is limited by the scale and accuracy compared to traditional methods.

Biological solutions are often used for developing technically innovative products in a biomimetic process. However, biological solutions do not always make it into a successful technical product, e.g. due to a lack of knowledge on the mechanisms of action. A new approach is presented for transferring biological solutions based on complex mechanisms of action. It is based on mathematical optimization methods and applied to the lightweight design of the musculoskeletal system. Finally, first technical implementations in the field of robotics, among others, will be presented.

Tension chording is a lightweight design principle in the human motion system. More muscles than necessary are available in this system to generate motion. By using these redundant muscles the principle contributes to the lightweight design of the motion segments. The lightweight design benefits of the principle for technical structures loaded with bending torques were shown in prior studies. This paper presents a pilot study on lightweight design benefits of using tension chording for torsion loaded structures.