CATOS (Computer Aided Training/Observing System): Automating animal observation and training

Abstract

In animal behavioral biology, an automated observing/training system may be useful for several reasons: (a) continuous observation of animals for documentation of specific, irregular events, (b) long-term intensive training of animals in preparation for behavioral experiments, (c) elimination of potential cues and biases induced by humans during training and testing. Here, we describe an open-source-based system named CATOS (Computer Aided Training/Observing System) developed for such situations. There are several notable features in this system. CATOS is flexible and low cost because it is based on free open-source software libraries, common hardware parts, and open-system electronics based on Arduino. Automated video condensation is applied, leading to significantly reduced video data storage compared to the total active hours of the system. A data-viewing utility program helps a user browse recorded data quickly and more efficiently. With these features, CATOS has the potential to be applied to many different animal species in various environments such as laboratories, zoos, or even private homes. Also, an animal's free access to the device without constraint, and a gamified learning process, enhance the animal's welfare and enriches their environment. As a proof of concept, the system was built and tested with two different species. Initially, the system was tested for approximately 10 months with a domesticated cat. The cat was successfully and fully automatically trained to discriminate three different spoken words. Then, in order to test the system's adaptability to other species and hardware components, we used it to train a laboratory rat for 3 weeks.

A conveyor feeder for animal experiments

“…Automated devices have been used for animal experiments in many scientific fields such as cognitive biology, neuroscience, ethology and psychology to test cognitive abilities and measure behaviors [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Also, open source devices have been increasingly used in these fields to facilitate reproduction, validation and customization [8,9,10].…”

“…The glue gun was used to fortify the attachment and cover sharp ends of the wire (the 7th and 8th image of Figure 2). The process of this attachment, (4)(5)(6)(7)(8), is also shown in a video, 'f c2B.mp4' uploaded to https://osfi.io/kgrm9/. The distance between two containers (from top of a container to top of the next container) was approximately four centimetres.…”

SMARTA: Automated testing apparatus for visual discrimination tasks

“…More recently, as technology continues to progress, there has been a push to develop more automated operant conditioning protocols using digital applications that are ideally also freely available. Some of the primary motivations behind these developments include (1) reducing costs of research, since a commercial BSkinner box^can cost in the thousands of US dollars (Chen & Li, 2017;Devarakonda, Nguyen, & Kravitz, 2016;Hoffman, Song, & Tuttle, 2007;Oh & Fitch, 2017;Ribeiro, Neto, Morya, Brasil, & de Araújo, 2018); (2) improving the speed and/or accuracy of data collection (Chen & Li, 2017;Oh & Fitch, 2017); and (3) taking into account the needs of the study and study subjects. Regarding the latter point, novel techniques have been developed to accommodate different testing environments (Fagot & Paleressompoulle, 2009;Oh & Fitch, 2017), discrimination tasks (Ribeiro et al, 2018), and rewards (Steurer, Aust, & Huber, 2012).…”

“…that require low financial investment and/or technological expertise on the part of researchers. These systems, such as ArduiPod Box (Pineño, 2014), ROBucket (Devarakonda et al, 2016), CATOS (Oh & Fitch, 2017), and OBAT (Ribeiro et al, 2018), are designed to detect different behavioral actions, such as a nose-poke (Devarakonda et al, 2016;Pineño, 2014), button press (Oh & Fitch, 2017), or bar touch (Ribeiro et al, 2018), in response to visual (Pineño, 2014) or auditory (Oh & Fitch, 2017;Ribeiro et al, 2018) stimuli.…”

Pet Animals’ Behavior Analysis: A Review

“…First, the system was tested with a domestic cat of 10 months' age for training. The cat was successfully trained to differentiate three dissimilar spoken words [6].…”