I-Corps: Cloud apps for animals: cutting costs and improving welfare

I-Corps：动物云应用程序：削减成本并改善福利

• 批准号: 1634613
• 负责人: Donald Brightsmith
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Texas A&M AgriLife Research
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-04-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1634613&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Cloud; apps; animals; cutting

Work with animals is very valuable for society. Animals as pets provide companionship and well documented health benefits. Zoos and aquariums are often public cultural institutions, and licensed animal exhibitors can be found in all the major cities in the United States. Research on drugs, behavior, and development require the use of live animals. For example, by law a drug cannot be brought to market without testing on live animals. For each of these valuable ways animals help us, there is a heavy workload of animal care and data collection. When the workload cannot be met, animals from home pets to zoo favorites suffer from a lower quality of life, and the value of what we get from animals is reduced. Heavy workloads lead to poor data, fewer pets, and sad looking zoo animals. The proposed project focuses on a system, similar to a video game system, that allows for automation of animal-related activities. This proposed system can give animals physical toys and puzzles to keep them busy, provide fun challenges for them to solve, and reward them for physical exercise all of which help keep the animals physically and mentally healthy. It will also provide new ways for people to bond with their pets, automatically conduct experiments, and record data.The goal of this I-Corps project is to identify the market need for devices which can improve animal welfare and automate data collection. This team will extensively interview in three potential market areas: pet owners, research laboratory decision makers, and zoo & aquarium staff. As the team members explore the market need, they will tailor their prototype system to meet market needs. The team will utilize the Schubot Exotic Bird Health Center at Texas A&M University to field test and scientifically validate the prototypes, then revisit their market areas with a product demonstration. If successful, they will develop a low cost, simple to use system that will allow animal caretakers, exhibitors, and researchers to automate much of their animal research and husbandry tasks. In this way the team will allow 1) pet owners to keep their animals busy and happy when they are away and to derive more benefits from pet ownership, 2) researchers to more efficiently and economically provide enrichment and run experiments, and 3) zookeepers to develop new interactive displays and provide highly stimulating activities for their animals. The team envisions the new device will work in the following way: load a game file, fill the object dispenser, and walk away knowing the system will exercise, entertain, feed, teach, research, or medicate the animal.

与动物一起工作对社会非常有价值。动物作为宠物可以带来陪伴和有据可查的健康益处。动物园和水族馆通常是公共文化机构，在美国所有主要城市都可以找到有执照的动物展览商。对药物、行为和发展的研究需要使用活的动物。例如，根据法律，一种药物不能在没有活体动物试验的情况下进入市场。对于动物帮助我们的每一种有价值的方式，都有繁重的动物护理和数据收集工作。当工作量无法满足时，从家里的宠物到动物园最受欢迎的动物都会遭受生活质量下降的影响，我们从动物那里得到的东西的价值也会降低。繁重的工作负载导致数据不佳，宠物数量减少，动物园里的动物看起来很悲伤。拟议的项目重点是一个类似于视频游戏系统的系统，允许动物相关活动的自动化。这个拟议的系统可以给动物们物理玩具和拼图来让它们忙碌，为它们提供有趣的挑战来解决，并奖励它们进行体育锻炼，所有这些都有助于保持动物的身心健康。它还将为人们与宠物建立联系、自动进行实验和记录数据提供新的方式。这个i-Corps项目的目标是确定市场对能够改善动物福利和自动化数据收集的设备的需求。这个团队将在三个潜在的市场领域进行广泛的采访：宠物主人、研究实验室决策者和动物园和水族馆的工作人员。随着团队成员探索市场需求，他们将定制他们的原型系统以满足市场需求。该团队将利用德克萨斯农工大学的Schubot奇异鸟类健康中心对原型进行实地测试和科学验证，然后通过产品演示重新考察其市场领域。如果成功，他们将开发一种低成本、简单易用的系统，允许动物饲养员、参展商和研究人员将他们的大部分动物研究和饲养任务自动化。通过这种方式，该团队将允许1)宠物主人在他们离开时让他们的动物忙碌和快乐，并从宠物饲养中获得更多好处，2)研究人员更有效和经济地提供丰富和运行实验，以及3)动物园管理员开发新的互动展示，并为他们的动物提供高度刺激的活动。该团队设想，新设备将以以下方式工作：加载游戏文件，装满物品分配器，然后离开时，知道系统将锻炼、娱乐、喂养、教学、研究或给动物治病。