Department of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Processes, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kennesaw State University, Marietta, GA 30060, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2021 Feb 27;21(5):1651. doi: 10.3390/s21051651.
Animal behavior is an essential element in behavioral neuroscience study. However, most behavior studies in small animals such as fruit flies () have been performed in a limited spatial chamber or by tethering the fly's body on a fixture, which restricts its natural behavior. In this paper, we developed the Transparent Omnidirectional Locomotion Compensator (TOLC) for a freely walking fruit fly without tethering, which enables its navigation in infinite space. The TOLC maintains a position of a fruit fly by compensating its motion using the transparent sphere. The TOLC is capable of maintaining the position error < 1 mm for 90.3% of the time and the heading error < 5° for 80.2% of the time. The inverted imaging system with a transparent sphere secures the space for an additional experimental apparatus. Because the proposed TOLC allows us to observe a freely walking fly without physical tethering, there is no potential injury during the experiment. Thus, the TOLC will offer a unique opportunity to investigate longitudinal studies of a wide range of behavior in an unrestricted walking .
动物行为是行为神经科学研究的一个重要组成部分。然而，大多数小动物（如果蝇）的行为研究都是在有限的空间室中进行的，或者通过将果蝇的身体系在固定装置上来限制其自然行为。在本文中，我们开发了用于自由行走的果蝇的透明全方位运动补偿器（TOLC），无需系绳即可实现其在无限空间中的导航。TOLC 通过使用透明球体补偿果蝇的运动来保持其位置。TOLC 能够在 90.3%的时间内将位置误差保持在 <1 毫米，在 80.2%的时间内将航向误差保持在 <5°。带有透明球体的倒置成像系统为附加实验设备提供了空间。由于所提出的 TOLC 允许我们在没有物理系绳的情况下观察自由行走的果蝇，因此在实验过程中不会造成潜在伤害。因此，TOLC 将为在不受限制的行走中研究广泛行为的纵向研究提供独特的机会。
