IMp: The customizable LEGO® Pinned Insect Manipulator

2015/02/04 by Steen Dupont, Benjamin Price, Vladimir Blagoderov · 1 voice · 3 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Engineering · #Acoustics #Artificial intelligence #Biology #Computer science #Engineering #Engineering drawing #Fossil Insects in Amber #Insect #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior #Insect behavior and control techniques #Manipulator (device) #Mechanical engineering #Modular design #Movement (music) #Operating system #Physics #Robot #Rotation (mathematics)

paper · pdf · doi:10.3897/zookeys.481.8788

openalex publication_date 2015/02/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

We present a pinned insect manipulator (IMp) constructed of LEGO® building bricks with two axes of movement and two axes of rotation. In addition we present three variants of the IMp to emphasise the modular design, which facilitates resizing to meet the full range of pinned insect specimens, is fully customizable, collapsible, affordable and does not require specialist tools or knowledge to assemble.

Cited by

• The LEGO® brick road to open science and biotechnology
• ZooKeys 500: traditions and innovations hand-in-hand servicing our taxonomic community. [europepmc]
• The Natural History Museum Data Portal. [europepmc]

Discussions

• Entomologists: stop buying expensive or poor-capability manipulators, and make yourself one out of Legos. Costs about $5 including shipping and better than anything else you will find. Has just the ri [bsky, 34 points, 2 comments]

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