Derby The Dog Runs For The First Time, Thanks To 3D Printing. From the Huffington Post:
Derby the dog was born with underdeveloped front legs, which severely limited his movement. He could not run, and he could barely get around on hard surfaces like concrete as that would be too abrasive on his front limbs.
But this all changed when Derby met Tara Anderson.
“I came across Derby a little over three months ago,” Anderson said in a moving video posted online Monday. “I kept looking at his photo and hearing his story, and I cried literally every time. Finally, [I said] OK, I’ll do it… I had to try to help this dog.”
Anderson works for 3D Systems, a South Carolina-based 3D-printing and manufacturing company. She’d heard about Derby through the dog rescue group Peace and Paws, and she was determined to find a way to help the pooch run and move about with ease.
She sought the help of Derrick Campana, an expert in animal prosthetics, and rallied some of her colleagues to work on creating the perfect prostheses for Derby. The team used 3D scanners, as well as “highly sophisticated” 3D modeling software, to create the prosthetics, notes 3DPrint.com….
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!
Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!
The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! We also offer the LulzBot TAZ – Open source 3D Printer and the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D Printer in our store. If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!