A simple method for studying operant wheel running in rats. The present report describes an operant running device for rats. The apparatus makes use of an activity wheel driven by a small electric motor. The motor is started by a bar press; once activated, the wheel turns for 3-30 sec. depending on the setting of a timing device. The system is well suited to long term studies of activity patter...

Entrainment of circadian behavior rhythms by daily exposure to a running wheel was examined in mice under constant darkness. Spontaneous movement was individually monitored for more than 6 mo by a thermal sensor. After establishment of steady-state free running, mice were placed in a different cage equipped with a running-wheel for 3 h once per day at 6 AM. The daily exchange was continued for ...

In most vehicle simulators, complete physical mockups equipped with steering wheel, gearshift and pedals are required. These devices are essential in trying to simulate real conditions, but as a drawback the system becomes expensive, huge (non mobile), and limited to reflect changes on the vehicle type, dimensions, or interior design. We have implemented different configurations for an immersiv...

When designing a planetary rover, it is important to consider and evaluate the influence of parameters such as the weight and dimensions of the rover on its traversability. In this study, the influence of a rover’s weight on its traversability was evaluated by performing experiments using a mono-track rover and an inline four-wheeled rover with different rover weights. Then, the influence of th...

This paper describes an odometric system for autonomous microrobots based on the optical properties of a motor–wheel transmission for motion feedback. We demonstrate that infra-red light, reflected from this mechanical system, shows distinctive periodic changes of amplitude, correlated with the motion of the robot. Real-time odometric signal processing, performed on a small embedded microcontro...

Crunch is a two wheel inverted pendulum balancing robot equipped with 8 sonars and 8 infrared rangefinders and uses a FastSLAM-like[6] particle filter algorithm to build consistent maps. This paper presents a summary of the robot’s design and capabilities as well as the particle filter algorithm used for consistent map building. 1. HARDWARE 1.1 Inverted Pendulum Balancing Crunch has only two wh...

My approach is to undertake a series of well replicated experiments on a broad range of zooplanktonic taxa, including copepods, larval fish, larval euphausiids, and ciliates. Our experimental apparatus consists of a series of six columnar tanks equipped with infra-red video cameras that continuously scan the full vertical range (210 cm) of each tank and thereby determine the vertical distributi...