Context

Ring-tailed lemurs are highly sociable animals that demonstrate a complex communication system within their highly hierarchically structured groups. These so called lemur troops are female dominated and gender-based or age-based social behaviors emerge and display variously around that central theme. Male Lemurs don’t have as high social regards as their female counterparts.

One of these behaviors is the Allo-grooming which is seen as a highly-social and selective behavior. Male Lemurs at the bottom of of the society are sometimes left out, which turns them into ‘Lone Riders’, traveling between different troops. As grooming is a mutual social behavior, we realized that, potentially, male Ring-tailed lemurs in the troop might not get as much responsive mutual interaction for an activity like grooming.

Proposal

We are proposing Lemur Buddy - an allogrooming device for the left-out male Lemurs within Lemur troops. Lemur Buddy shall create a sense of companionship with behavioral feedback and olfactory stimuli that is intuitive and natural to the Ring-tailed Lemurs.

• Lemur Buddy purrs when a lemur touches it.
• Lemur Buddy grooms a lemur when lemur rubs through the rollers and the comb wall.
• Lemur Buddy incorporates olfactory stimulation.

Also, Lemur Buddy is based on and imitates the Lemur’s grooming posture and has a fluid shape so Lemurs can hold it or hug it with comfort and familiarity.

Design Process

1. Research

2. Shape Exploration

3. Prototype ONE

4. Prototype TWO