An Arduino-Based RFID Platform for Animal Research
Date
2019-07-10Author
Bridge, Eli S.
Wilhelm, Jay
Pandit, Meelyn M.
Moreno, Alexander
Curry, Claire M.
Pearson, Tyler D.
Proppe, Darren S.
Holwerda, Charles
Eadie, John M.
Stair, Tez F.
Olson, Ami C.
Lyon, Bruce E.
Branch, Carrie L.
Pitera, Angela M.
Kozlovsky, Dovid
Sonnenberg, Benjamin R.
Pravosudov, Vladimir V.
Ruyle, Jessica E.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
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.
Citation
Bridge, E.S., Wilhelm, J., Pandit, M.M., Moreno, A., Curry, C.M., Pearson, T.D., Proppe, D.S., Holwerda, C., Eadie, J.M., Stair, T.F., Olson, A.C., Lyon, B.E., Branch, C.L., Pitera, A.M., Kozlovsky, D., Sonnenberg, B.R., Pravosudov, VV. and Ruyle, J.E. (2019) An Arduino-Based RFID Platform for Animal Research. Front. Ecol. Evol. 7:257. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00257
Sponsorship
Open Access fees paid for in whole or in part by the University of Oklahoma Libraries
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