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Tech Helps Animals With Limb Loss Get Back on Their Feet
Felix moves around the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary with a 3D printed leg created with help from SUNY New Paltz researchers.
Credit: Woodstock Farm Sanctuary
Researchers from the More Foundation and Midwestern University turned to 3D scanning and printing technology to mold a new appendage for Mr. Stubbs, an alligator who had lost a portion of his tail.
Using computer software, they scanned the alligator and scaled up his tail, digitally. It took about 150 hours to print, and about $1,000 worth of materials to create, but the result was a new, 35-pound Dragon Skin tail for Mr. Stubbs.
Mr. Stubbs is far from the first critter to end up with a human-made appendage. Prosthetics maker Derrick Campana says that he's "treated 20,000 furry patients with mobility devices" since 2004.
At the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary in High Falls, New York, a sheep named Felix uses a 3D printed leg created with help from SUNY New Paltz researchers. The sanctuary has worked with prosthetists and universities to figure out how to bring increased mobility back to farm animals.
From CNET
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