A novel platform for distributed and remote real-time monitoring of animal model behavior in a bioterium

Animal models are an important resource in life sciences research; however, many of the procedures involving vivo models are complex and time consuming. A common problem while conducting experiments is observing the behavior of the models throughout their stay in the bioterium. Ideally, behavioral assessment should be frequent and rigorous, as a way of more accurately characterizing the animal model. However, to date, few suitable automated solutions can be found within the state-of-the-art. In this paper, we propose an autonomous platform for distributed behavioral data acquisition from individual animal habitats in bioteriums, with remote and online access to the data. This approach allows real-time observation of the status of the habitats, and retrieval of the logged data for post-processing. The work focuses on the use case of motion, temperature and water intake monitoring in small rodents, although the platform was designed to be general-purpose and extensible to other types of habitats and sensing configurations.