Akhani 3D has been working with Raptor Rescue for a number of years …
This video is the story of how Akhani 3D has used Additive Manufacturing to help Ben at Raptor Rescue, solve the challenges of tracking the birds.
Here’s the Transcript
Ben Hoffman 0:06
People don’t realize this is a species under huge threat globally.
Without the apex species, for one, the world will just be a poorer place and two that would have huge impacts on our natural heritage. It’s not a case of anti-poaching with men on the ground with guns. Technologies there, we’ve got to embrace it.
My name is Ben Hoffman. I’m from an organization called Raptor Rescue, which is an NPO that does rehabilitation of injured birds of prey.
Vultures are of high priority right now because they are taking a thumping.
Basically, throughout the whole of Africa, they’ve had a 95% decline in their range and population.
Their digestive system is very powerful, they can eat anthrax killed animals, kill off the virus and not get poisoned themselves. Not having them clean up carcasses that are in the veld, wild animals or domestic animals, the spread of disease is highly possible.
Until we understand the biology of these species, we cannot conserve them. We’ve got to understand what are their threats and what, what are their challenges. And the only way we can do that is with the advent of GPS tracking.
The tracking devices must not impair their flight. So it’s got to be well designed, have had minimal impact on the bird, but have maximum data collection.
Our early attempts were using off-the-shelf GPS devices. We just found boxes, tried to put solar panels on them. They were huge and, they were big and they were unreliable. So, Additive Manufacturing’s been a game-changer, an absolute game-changer.
We’ve gone from devices that weighed nearly 80, 90 grams down to devices that weigh 6 grams.
Bryan Bullock 2:13
The first time I met Ben, he’d actually been using somebody else to design his enclosures and he approached me to take over the optimisation.
There was definitely potential for Additive Manufacturing, in fact, it is one of the more perfect cases I’ve come across. Some of the key criteria such as weight saving, customization, are present in the Raptor Rescue project.
We can really think outside the box, so to speak, and add a lot of complexity to the design base. Focus more on functionality, as opposed to how we are going to manufacture it.
Ben Hoffman 2:50
You can now take data and, we will get to understand what they do and where their threats are. So if there are poisonings, where they’re going, where they’re getting poisoned.
Going back to the technology, we need to embrace it, we need to embrace it carefully. But the amount of stuff we know about animals, it’s changed dramatically in the last five to ten years.
Bryan Bullock 3:10
It’s a huge thing to conserve our wildlife, they are always taking a backseat to all our other problems that we have in South Africa.
Ben’s projects and Raptor Rescue — these projects have been the perfect example of what additive manufacturing can do.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
