ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the direction-dependent adhesion properties of microstructured bio-inspired surfaces, consisting of parallel elastic wall-like structures topped by a thin film. Such a system shows high adhesion strength when loaded with a detaching moment acting perpendicularly to the wall-like structures (the critical moment for detachment is higher, 15 times or more, than the one occurring in a flat control sample). When the system is, instead, loaded with a moment acting in any other direction, the critical moment for detachment is less than the one of a flat control sample.
