Benefits of Makerspaces: Building An Enhanced Flight Mill for the Study of Tethered Insect Flight v1

Abstract

Makerspaces have a high potential of enabling researchers to develop new techniques and work with novel species in ecological research. This protocol demonstrates how to take advantage of the technology increasingly found in makerspaces in order to build a more versatile flight mill for a relatively low cost. Since this flight mill and trial design initially extracts its prototype from flight mills built in the last decade, this protocol instead focuses more on outlining divergences made from the simple, modern flight mill. As already shown, previous studies have made known how advantageous flight mills are to measuring flight parameters such as speed, distance, or periodicity and to allowing researchers to associate these parameters with morphological, physiological, or genetic factors. In addition to these advantages, I discuss the benefits of using the technology in makerspaces like 3D printers and laser cutters in order to build a more flexible, sturdy, and collapsible flight mill design. Most notably, the 3D printed components of this design allow the user to adjust the mill arm and IR sensor heights to test insects of various sizes and enable the user to easily disassemble the machine for quick storage or transportation to the field. Moreover, I emphasize making greater use of magnets and magnetic paint to attach insects with minimal stress during flight trials. Lastly, this protocol details a versatile analysis of flight data by programming how to efficiently take and process continuous but differentiable flight trials. Although more labor-intensive, communallyshared makerspaces and free, online 3D modeling programs can help researchers avoid costly, pre-made products with narrowly adjustable dimensions. By taking advantage of the flexibility and reproducibility of technology in makerspaces, this protocol promotes creative flight mill design and inspires open science.