Personalised hoof care using 3D print technology
The Netherlands is known as a "horse country"; the best riders and horses in the equine sports world are from Dutch origin. Thanks to new developments in technology and artificial intelligence (AI), it is increasingly possible to measure, monitor and improve the well-being and health of horses. By intervening in problems at an early stage and developing solutions that meet a horse's individual needs, animal welfare can be sustainably improved.
Developments around 3D printing technology could potentially provide a solution when it comes to fitting of hoof shoes to horses with foot problems. The computer-aided design phase of a 3D-printed object offers the possibility of adjusting hoof shoes to the individual needs of the patient to the millimeter, a fine example of "personalised care."
The bottleneck in the pipeline is the manual modeling of the model of the hoof shoe to be printed. Because the modeling cannot be done by the farrier himself, software is needed to perform that automatically. If that software is made user-friendly for farriers/veterinarians, it will open the door to making this technique available to practitioners.
Project leader
Silvan Eelman, MSc student Game and Media Technology
Academic supervisors
Harold Brommer, professor Equine Sciences & Remco Veltkamp, professor Game and Media Technology