ROBOTIC TOADS TURN HEADS
Lifelike models aid in research
It was the eyes.
A yellow toad Lincoln Savi made with a 3D printer started to look alive like the ones in Costa Rica as the University of Windsor master’s student applied the last brush strokes of clear paint.
“I just had a big smile on my face,” Savi recalled. “The real magic when I knew that I had a good model was as soon as I put the finishing touch on painting it which was glossing the eyes so they were reflective like a real eye. As soon as I did that I was surprised at how realistic it was and just had to share it with people.”
He added electronic movement and RoboToad was born.
He made more and eight RoboToads quickly became a social media hit and lifelike research assistants for PhD student Katrina Switzer, who is in Costa Rica now studying the male neotropical yellow toads that only turn yellow for half a day to mate before turning back to brown. She wants to know if a brighter yellow attracts more females and no female is going to waste her time on a fake-looking frog.
It’s a game-changer, said Dan Mennill, a University of Windsor biology professor who is involved in research being done by his wife and fellow professor Stephanie Doucet, and Switzer.
“The use of 3D printing brings about a new era for animal behaviourists who want to study animals in the wild,” Mennill said. Researchers have used taxidermy specimens that break down or clay models that aren’t realistic. Now research can be done that scientists only dreamed of in the past, he said. What’s really special is the combination of Savi’s scientific and artistic knowledge to make “incredibly lifelike” 3D animals, Mennill said.
The RoboToads were such a success that in April Savi started his own business — Savi Made — making 3D -printed animals. He’s created about 20 so far, some for research and some as unique gifts for biologists. He also sees a market for teachers such as making largerthan-life insects for education. He pitched his business idea and was accepted into the RBC Epic Founders program for entrepreneurs at the university’s EPICentre and will learn to grow his startup over the next three months. Savi, who studies the songs of wrens in Costa Rica with Mennill, said the 3D models cost $100 to $200 because they can take almost 20 hours to make. First he handsculpts a model using a computer program which takes six or seven hours. The 3D printing, which he describes as a hot glue gun spitting out plastic in any shape you design, takes about eight hours. The hand painting adds another three to four hours.
He’s made colourful life-size tree frogs, a Hercules beetle and a baby lake sturgeon. The life-like animals that fit inside a 20-centimetre cube for the 3D printer could be used to study animal behaviour or human behaviour, such as whether people will avoid hitting a turtle on the road, he said. Scientists could put speakers or a camera inside the plastic models expanding research possibilities.