Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior (CASCB) and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior have transformed a former barn into a state-of-the-art technology lab for analyzing complex animal behavior. This lab allows them to study the intricate behavior of animal groups. The barn has also served as a prototype for the University of Konstanz’s largest swarm behavior lab, the Imaging Hangar. The details of this research have been published in Science Advances.
A significant limitation in behavioral research is that scientists can only study animals in highly controlled, but often simplified and small, lab environments, or in largely uncontrolled conditions in the wild. This has restricted our ability to study various aspects of behavior, including collective behavior – the movements and interactions among animals that underlie their complex social lives. So, what is needed to address this? Firstly, a spacious location. Secondly, state-of-the-art technology.
Both of these requirements are met by an 18th-century barn at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Möggingen near Konstanz, and now by the Imaging Hangar, a hall the size of a gymnasium at the University of Konstanz. Both labs are used to closely examine the group behavior of animals. To achieve this in a multidimensional manner, researchers from the Cluster of Excellence Center for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior at the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior have developed a tool called SMART-BARN.
SMART-BARN stands for Scalable Multimodal Arena for Real-time Tracking Behavior of Animals in large numbers. “It is a new tool that allows studying complex behavior traits of an individual or interactions between groups of animals like insects, birds, or mammals,” says Hemal Naik. SMART-BARN was developed by Hemal Naik, Máté Nagy, Co-Speaker of the Cluster, Iain Couzin, and their colleagues. The team consisted of biologists, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists.
Máté Nagy explains, “We are using high throughput measurement techniques like optical and acoustic tracking, which enable us to study the precise 3D position and posture of animals and calculate their field of view.” Users of the new facility will have the flexibility to conduct different experimental paradigms by utilizing the modular nature of the system.
2023-09-02 04:24:02
Source from phys.org