Contact: Rachel Ewing
raewing@drexel.edu
215-895-2614
Drexel University

3-D Printed Robotic Dinosaurs

Caption: Researchers at Drexel University are bringing the latest technological advancements in 3-D printing to the study of ancient life. Using scale models of real fossils, for the first time, they will be able to test hypotheses about how dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals moved and lived in their environments. An original fossil is laser scanned into a 3-D image and printed as an exact copy of the bone's shape. A working robotic model can be assembled and tested. Researchers expect to have a working model robotic limb by the end of 2012, and potentially a fully-reconstructed robotic dinosaur model within 1-2 years.

Credit: Drexel University

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