Equipment

High-speed cameras are used for kinematical analyses.

We have two systems with four cameras to record synchronised videos for 3D-motion analyses:

Four Fastec IL5-S cameras (pdf - 738kb), each with 8GB of image memory an a built-in 1 TB solid-state drive for storage and direct streaming. 

​​​Four cameras coupled to a Norpix 10 GigE Vision framegrabber system, each streaming up to 1920 x 1080 pixel at up to 325 frames per second directly to the disks of a portable computer.

A Mikrotron Eosens TS3 camera (pdf - 731kb) with 8 GB image memory and 256 GB solid-state drive for storage is used in the field or in zoos.

​We also use two AOS X-PRI cameras (pdf - 560kb) with each 2 GB of image memory, and one Redlake Motionscope M3 (pdf - 216kb) with 2.6 GB of memory.  Both models can record at full resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels at 500 fps.

All of our cameras have monochrome sensors that are sensitive in the near IR spectrum, so that scenes can be illuminated with IR spots.

Our high-speed cameras are Funded by grants from the FWO and the special research fund of the University of Antwerp.

3D²YMOX (3-Dimensional DYnamic MOrphology using X-rays) is a biplanar x-ray video set-up dedicated for zoological research in the fields of functional and evolutionary morphology, biomechanics and veterinary sciences.  As part of the laboratory for Functional Morphology at the University of Antwerp (Belgium) since 2017, it will be used to unravel specific questions concerning form‐function relationships in an ecological, evolutionary or applied context.

This equipment is funded by a grant for medium-sized research infrastructure from the Hercules Foundation (Government of Flanders) to promotor Prof. Peter Aerts (UA-Funmorph), and co-promoters Prof. Joris Dirckx (UA-BIMEF), Prof. Christa Van Ginneken (UA-Applied Veterinary Morphology) and Prof. Dominique Adriaens (UGent-Evomorph).  The University of Antwerp provided additional financial support to develop x-ray video analysis methods (BOF-NOI grant).

For more information visit the website.

As a member of the Hercules-consortium, Funmorph has access to the SkyScan 1172 micro-CT-scan located at the Free University of Brussels,  Plant Biology and Nature Management lab.

The SkyScan 1172 is the world's first 11 megapixel micro-CT. Its cooled x-ray digital camera achieves high resolution without compromising sample size. Cross section images are generated in a wide range of formats up to 8k x 8k pixels. It comes with SkyScan software for 2D/3D quantitative analysis and for realistic 3D visualisation.

For more technical details, click here.

Funmorph uses the professional multi-physics simulation software package ANSYS for computational biomechanical models. We use this software to study fluid dynamics (CFD or Computational Fluid Dynamics), structural loadings (FEA or Finite Element Analysis), and fluid-structure interactions (FSI). The lab has two software licenses: ANSYS v14.5.7 (release 2013) running on a small portable computer (12-core, 64 GB RAM), and the most recent version running on a large desktop workstation (16-core, 512 GB RAM).​

For surface triangulation, mesh editing or STL repair, Funmorph has single computer licenses for VRmesh 5.0 Studio and Geomagic Capture v11 (brochure [pdf], 90kb) as part of our laser scanning system.

Funded by Research Grants of the Fund for Scientific Research - Flanders (Belgium)(FWO-Vl.) to Sam Van Wassenbergh and Herbert Peremans (Active Perception Lab, Dept. Milieu, Technologie en Technologiemanagement) and Grants from the Universiteit Antwerpen to Sam Van Wassenbergh and Jana Goyens.

Funmorph has a Faro Laser ScanArm V2 system  to scan the external morphology of animals.

This information can be used as input in biomechanical models, for example computational fluid dynamics (CFD).  The triangulation 3D laser scanner  is mounted on a seven axis FaroArm Platinum coordinate measuring arm with an extended length of 1.8 m and a volumetric maximal deviation of 37  µm.  It uses a laser stripe and camera to reconstruct the scanned surface as a three dimensional could of points.  The point cloud is further processed into 3D surface and volume mesh files using the licensed software Geomagic, VRmesh, and ANSYS meshing software.

Click below for technical information on

• the Faro Laser Line Probe V2: techsheet [pdf]
• the FaroArm Platinum coordinate measuring arm [pdf]

Funded by Research Grants of the Fund for Scientific Research - Flanders (Belgium)(F.W.O. - Vlaanderen) to Sam Van Wassenbergh, Raoul Van Damme and Peter Aerts.

Funmorph has a portable X-ray Unit AJEX 9020H that shoots digital x-ray pictures of small animals in semi-field conditions.

Safety procedures to be followed when using the unit can be downloaded here.

The Leica M165 C is a traditional stereo microscope with the following characteristics:

• Optical data: 16:5:1 manual
• Zoom range: 7.3x-120x
• Maximum resolution: 453lp/mm
• Object field: 31.5mm-1.92mm
• Maximum magnification: 960x

The manual and technical data can be downloaded below.

• Manual [pdf, 7.51Mb]
• Technical data [pdf, 4.39Mb]

Funmorph has a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) that can carry up to six passengers. We use it to reach the small islands in the Mediterranean Sea that are the scene of our insular biology research.

The boat is 5.66m long, 2.56m wide and has a maximum depth of 0.88m. It is equipped with a Yamaha 150F outboard motor (110.3kW).

Funmorph uses the AvaSpec-2048 USB2-UA-50  fiber-optic portable spectrometer to quantify reflectance (of e.g. animal skin) across a spectral range of 200-1100nm. This range includes the ultraviolet, visual and near infrared portions of the radiation spectrum. Reflectance spectra offer us a more objective view of animal colouration - a view that is not biased by the peculiarities of ou own human eyes.

When fitted with a cosine corrected probe (CC-VIS/NIR, Avantes), the spectrometer also allows the measurement of irradiance spectra. Information on irradiance and skin reflectance can be combined to quantify how much an animal stands out against the background.

The system comes with a custom software package, AvaSoft.

The AvaSpec operating manual can be downloaded here: [pdf - 3.97Mb]