An Arduino-Based RFID Platform for Animal Research

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been broadly applied in the biological sciences to yield new insights into behavior, cognition, population biology, and distributions. RFID systems entail wireless communication between small tags that, when stimulated by an appropriate radio frequency transmission, emit a weak, short-range wireless signal that conveys a unique ID number. These tags, which often operate without a battery, can be attached to animals such that their presence at a particular location can be detected by an RFID reader. This paper describes an RFID data-logging system that can serve as the core for a wide variety of field and laboratory applications for monitoring the activities of individual animals. The core electronics are modeled on an Arduino circuit board, which is a hobbyist electronics system. Users can customize the hardware and software to accommodate their needs. We demonstrate the utility of the system with cursory descriptions of three real-world research applications. The first is a large-scale deployment that was used to examine individual breeding behaviors across four local populations of Wood Ducks. The second application employed an array of RFID-enabled bird feeders that allowed for tests of spatial cognition. Third, we describe a nest-box monitoring system that both records visits from breeding birds and administers experimental treatments, such as increasing temperature or playing audio recordings, in accordance to the presence/absence of individual birds. With these examples we do not attempt to relate details with regard to research findings; rather our intent is to demonstrate some of the possibilities enabled by our low-cost RFID system. Detailed descriptions, design files, and code are made available by means of the Open Science Framework.

Semi‐portable solar power to facilitate continuous operation of technology in the field

“…The primary system we have been using in the field includes a timer switch and a DC/DC converter (5-V output; see Table S1 for parts list), and has been used to power an Arduino-based RFID reader (Bridge et al, 2019) Table 1). We concluded that we could confidently operate this system continuously with a 12-V 22-Ah battery (2.72 stored days) and a 50-W solar panel (full recharge with 1 hr of sunlight).…”

“…The primary system we have been using in the field includes a timer switch and a DC/DC converter (5‐V output; see Table for parts list), and has been used to power an Arduino‐based RFID reader (Bridge et al., 2019), a small 1‐W MP3 player and speaker (Part #2073960; open‐smart, http://dx.com), a Raspberry Pi Zero with a camera (Raspberry Pi Zero v1.3 NoIR Camera Pack; Ada Fruit) and USB Wi‐Fi dongle (CF‐912AC Built‐in RTL8812AU; COMFAST). With active and resting times for each component incorporated, this system requires 48.53 Wh/day (see Table 1).…”

“…For example, passive acoustic monitoring devices (e.g. Wildlife Acoustics) are designed to continuously record soundscapes for months; trail cameras have opened a new realm of animal research (O'Connell, Nichols, & Karanth, 2010), and the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) to track movement and behaviour of animals is on the rise (Bridge et al., 2019). The expanding capabilities of small computing units, such as the Arduino (Ivrea, Italy) or Raspberry Pi (Cambridge, UK) are making these platforms useful for controlling cameras, lights, sounds and temperatures within an organism's habitat (e.g.…”

O mouse, where art thou? The Mouse Position Surveillance System (MoPSS) - an RFID based tracking system

“…To combine automated and individual detection, telemetry can be used by either implanting a rather large, battery-powered transponder (Kawakami et al, 2012) or injecting a smaller, passive transponder for radio-frequency identification (RFID) (Kirchner et al, 2012; Freymann et al, 2015; Freymann et al, 2017). The latter method is also very commonly used not just for choice tests but to record general activity patterns of mice (Freund et al, 2013; Bains et al, 2016; Weissbrod et al, 2013; de Chaumont et al, 2019), rats (Redfern et al, 2017) and birds (Bridge et al, 2019). But although there have already been automated tracking systems described, those are either expensive (Linnenbrink and von Merten, 2017; Bains et al, 2016), use non-implantable transponders (Bridge et al, 2019), can only detect animal species moving slower than mice (birds in nest boxes: Bridge et al, 2019) or they are based on proprietary equipment that is not freely available (Tsai et al, 2012).…”

“…The latter method is also very commonly used not just for choice tests but to record general activity patterns of mice (Freund et al, 2013; Bains et al, 2016; Weissbrod et al, 2013; de Chaumont et al, 2019), rats (Redfern et al, 2017) and birds (Bridge et al, 2019). But although there have already been automated tracking systems described, those are either expensive (Linnenbrink and von Merten, 2017; Bains et al, 2016), use non-implantable transponders (Bridge et al, 2019), can only detect animal species moving slower than mice (birds in nest boxes: Bridge et al, 2019) or they are based on proprietary equipment that is not freely available (Tsai et al, 2012). Thus, for a home cage based preference test with group housed mice, a reliable, time and cost efficient analysis method is still missing.…”