Jaguar Land Rover can be weird like this sometimes. A couple days ago, its engineering department printed a robotic dog’s paw on a 3D printer to assess the coating quality of different car paints. Read on and try not to spill your drink!
The plastic appendage is called RoboYogi and pays homage to Yogi, a Labrador dog who currently lives in the Guide Dog National Breeding Centre in England. For years, Yogi has helped Land Rover experts test the quality of fresh paint on newly assembled Defender SUVs by jumping into the trunk and then jumping back out. The engineers recorded every last of his movements using cameras, inspected the surfaces for potential scratches and measured the pressure the nine-year-old canine exerted on the suspension system.
Since many dog owners transport their dogs in the cargo area of their large SUV or minivan, the company tried to ascertain just how long the paint coating would be able to resist the claws of the dog before it starts to peel off. It came to the conclusion that the rear bumper of the latest Land Rover Defender could withstand 10 years of such mistreatment.
However, using a live dog for QA testing was impractical at best, so the testing crew resolved to find a more suitable alternative, finally settling on a robotized appendage resembling a dog’s paw. The RoboYogi will be used to test each relevant SUV part for ‘dog resistance’ in 5,000 cycles. The crew reports they are happy with this novel approach, indeed, and would not mind Yogi retiring at all.
On a side note, Ford has been using another similar testing device called Robobutt. Shaped like human buttocks, the prosthetic is used by the company’s designers to automate the search for the most comfortable seat to sit in.