A wirelessly-powered homecage with animal behavior analysis and closed-loop power control

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2016 Aug:2016:6323-6326. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2016.7592174.

Abstract

This paper presents a new EnerCage-homecage system, EnerCage-HC2, for longitudinal electrophysiology data acquisition experiments on small freely moving animal subjects, such as rodents. EnerCage-HC2 is equipped with multi-coil wireless power transmission (WPT), closed-loop power control, bidirectional data communication via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Microsoft Kinect® based animal behavior tracking and analysis. The EnerCage-HC2 achieves a homogeneous power transfer efficiency (PTE) of 14% on average, with ~42 mW power delivered to the load (PDL) at a nominal height of 7 cm by the closed-loop power control mechanism. The Microsoft Kinect® behavioral analysis algorithm can not only track the animal position in real-time but also classify 5 different types of rodent behaviors: standstill, walking, grooming, rearing, and rotating. A proof-of-concept in vivo experiment was conducted on two awake freely behaving rats while successfully operating a one-channel stimulator and generating an ethogram.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Animals
  • Behavior, Animal*
  • Electric Power Supplies*
  • Male
  • Rats
  • Wireless Technology*