Ground breaking experimentation: Project Termes designs and develops largest scanner in the world

[Martin Coleman]

Nambia, Africa

Project TERMES conducted ground breaking experiments

The TERMES project has been featured on a BBC3 documentary called "Bionic Buildings".

Brent and his team designed and built the world's largest mobile scanning machine which took just two weeks. Scanning on the termite mound however took 2 months, night and day.The mound structure of Macrotermes michaelseni is revealed for the BBC Natural History Unit who filmed the David Attenborough 'Life on Earth' series. While there experiments are conducted examining the moisture and permeability of the mound structures. Data from these experiments will go into a model of homeostasis in Macrotermes michaelseni mounds.The team was spearheaded by Jo Darlington, Scott Turner and Eugene Marais to create what must surely be one of the greatest entomological experiences a team of engineers could ever hope to have.The teams at the Omatjenne research station and the National Museum of Namibia hosted the development.

The mounds were prepared with plaster of paris ready for the scanning machine to begin slicing. Two mounds were filled in preparation for the scan experiment which will capture the Macrotermes michaelseni mound geometry - mixing and pouring 6 tonnes of plaster of paris is back breaking work. BPB plc deliver materials from Johannesbourg in South Africa to Namibia, some 2000Km away.

Since the series, A number of experiments have been undertaken to determine input and output variables of a Macrotermes michaelseni mound, including mound permeability, colony respiration rate, internal gas concentrations and mound air velocity experiments which begin to measure internal and external environmental conditions including metabolic rates, mound permeability, respiratory gas concentrations and temperature profiles.

The team successfully sliced and scanned 2500 images to 1½ metres below ground level. The filling technique proved remarkably successful, capturing the finest of details within the mound structure, and were even able to scan the Royal chamber. It was a 2 month challenge working 24 hours a day in hot and dusty conditions.
The team then spent a frantic two weeks cleaning up and normalising the scan images but struggled to handle the shear size of the data (going to need some pretty massive computing capability for this). They managed to produce 'first pass' 3D visualisations for everything above ground level and also full, low res, 3D rotations of this stunning structure for release on Sir David Attenborough's 'Life In The Undergrowth' launch in mid-November 2005.

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