Carousel Animal Caging With Rotating Single-Sensor Monitoring
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Solution Overview
Problem
Laboratory animal monitoring is labor-intensive, often restricted to daytime hours, and conventional systems are high-cost and require multiple sensors per cage, limiting remote and nighttime monitoring capabilities.
Innovation Solution
A carousel-style animal caging system with a support leg and sensors, including optical and non-optical sensors, mounted on rotating arms to monitor multiple cages with a single sensor, capable of infrared imaging for nighttime surveillance and automated calibration, integrated with a control interface for data interpretation and management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple sensors are used per cage, then monitoring coverage is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
A single sensor unit is designed to monitor multiple animal cages by rotating through different cage positions, eliminating the need for separate sensors in each cage. The sensor performs multiple monitoring functions across different cages sequentially, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining comprehensive monitoring coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor is mounted on a rotating mechanism that dynamically repositions itself to access different cages. This dynamic positioning allows the single sensor to cover multiple static cage locations, transforming a static monitoring system into a dynamic one that adapts its position to monitor various cages as needed.
2Ease of operation
If manual monitoring is used, then operational simplicity is maintained, but labor intensity and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system performs automated self-monitoring of animal conditions, food levels, water levels, and cage environment without requiring human intervention. The system independently detects anomalies, tracks vital signs, and maintains records, freeing personnel from routine monitoring tasks while improving monitoring efficiency and consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
Manual mechanical monitoring by personnel is replaced with an automated electronic sensor system that electronically detects and transmits animal status data. This substitution eliminates the need for physical human presence in animal housing areas while continuously monitoring conditions, thereby improving productivity without sacrificing operational simplicity.
3Ease of operation
If daytime monitoring is restricted, then operational simplicity is maintained, but loss of time for nighttime monitoring occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring system operates continuously without interruption across all hours of the day and night. The sensor rotates through cages at scheduled intervals regardless of time of day, ensuring uninterrupted monitoring coverage. This continuous operation eliminates dead time and ensures that animal conditions are monitored equally throughout the 24-hour cycle, preventing loss of nighttime monitoring opportunities.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables efficient remote monitoring of multiple cages with reduced sensor usage, allowing continuous observation without disrupting animal activity, and providing real-time data interpretation for vital signs, events, and environmental conditions.
Implementation Method 1
the first sensor is an optical sensor
Implementation Method 2
the first sensor is a camera configured to capture images in one or both of an infrared or visible spectrum of light
Data Source
AI summary
An animal caging system for remote monitoring includes a frame, a carousel-style rack configured to support at least one animal cage, and a monitoring system attached to the frame for capturing data from the animal cage. The monitoring system includes a support leg, a mounting arm for mounting the monitoring system to the frame, and at least one sensor for monitoring or observing the interior of the cage. The monitoring system may also include a motor for rotating the carousel-style rack, to allow multiple cages to be monitored by a single sensor or set of sensors, in sequence, as the carousel-style rack rotates.