156B Week 8

MAE 156B Week 8 Progress Report

Project Title: Locomotion Monitoring System for Mouse Cognitive Behavioral Task

Sponsor Name: Bloodgood Lab and Hnasko Lab

Overview of Status of Analysis, Design, Fabrication, Tests, etc.

• • All major components have been ordered  and most have been received

  • Bloodgood air chamber fabricated with impeller mounted

  • Testing of Bloodgood chamber scheduled for this week

  • Assembly and fabrication for all chamber will be completed by middle of week 9

Accomplishments from Previous Week

• • All t-slotted aluminum bars ordered and received

  • Frame, gaskets, and walls for Bloodgood air chamber completed

  • Mounts for motorized impeller installed

  • Top and bottom plates laser cut and installed

  • Hardware for lickometer ordered

  • Countersinking for acrylic plates completed for Bloodgood air chamber

  • Disk flange designed in CAD

Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.

• • Test capacitive sensor (Philip)

  • Set up visual cue system (Jeff)

  • Lead assembly of Hnasko air chamber (Michal)

  • Fabricate disk flange (David)

Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments

• • Bloodgood lab intends to use young mice which may not be able to start motion; we’ll address this after testing the assembled system

  • Hnasko lab confirmed that they wanted higher temporal resolution and may require a traditional optical encoder; however, it is probably too late to implement the necessary design changes. Furthermore, our current encoder fulfills the original requirements.

  • Hnasko lab wants two full sized monitors to surround mouse; we’ll implement this if we have time.

Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments

• • Comment: Gaskets may require too much force to seal box

    • Action: RTV purchased for sealing

  • Comment: Use shims to adjust distance of impeller from entrance hole

    • Action: Motor mounting system designed to accept shims

Risks and Areas of Concern

• • Grommets may not provide sufficient vibration isolation

  • Motor mounting brackets may be damaged by motorized impeller during startup

  • Liquid reward may mess with capacitive sensor’s ability to discern licks of mouse

Resources or Information Required but not Available

• • Pushing force of young mice for Bloodgood lab is unknown

Budget (list amount spent and amount remaining)

• • $2,463.41 spent thus far

  • $1,036.59 remaining

Progress on Report and Web Page

• • Report:

    • Select sections (lickometer, disk analysis) rewritten

    • Number of significant figures reduced for analysis section

  • Website

    • Sponsor names added

    • Rendering of final design added to multimedia section

Schedule

Major Milestones: