Automated quantification of the behaviour of freely moving animals is increasingly needed in ethology, ecology, genetics and evolution. State-of-the-art approaches often require tags to identify animals, high computational power for data collection and processing, and are sensitive to environmental conditions, which limits their large-scale utilisation. Here we introduce a new automated tracking system based on millimetre-wave radars for real time robust and high precision monitoring of untagged animals. To validate our system, we tracked 64 sheep in a standard indoor behavioural test used for genetic selection. First, we show that the proposed radar application is faster and more accurate than conventional video and infrared tracking systems. Next, we illustrate how new behavioural estimators can be derived from the radar data to assess personality traits in sheep for behavioural phenotyping. Finally, we demonstrate that radars can be used for movement tracking at larger spatial scales, in the field, by adjusting operating frequency and radiated electromagnetic power. Millimetre-wave radars thus hold considerable promises for high-throughput recording of the behaviour of animals with various sizes and locomotor modes, in different types of environments.

中文翻译：

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用于自动行为跟踪的非侵入性雷达系统：应用于绵羊

在行为学，生态学，遗传学和进化中，越来越需要对活动的动物的行为进行自动量化。最先进的方法通常需要标签来识别动物，数据收集和处理的计算能力高，并且对环境条件敏感，这限制了它们的大规模利用。在此，我们介绍一种基于毫米波雷达的新型自动跟踪系统，用于对未标记动物进行实时鲁棒和高精度监控。为了验证我们的系统，我们在用于基因选择的标准室内行为测试中跟踪了64只绵羊。首先，我们证明了拟议的雷达应用比常规的视频和红外跟踪系统更快，更准确。下一个，我们说明了如何从雷达数据中得出新的行为估计量，以评估绵羊的人格特征以进行行为表型分析。最后，我们证明了通过调整工作频率和辐射电磁功率，可以将雷达用于更大范围的运动跟踪。因此，毫米波雷达有望在不同类型的环境中高通量记录各种大小和运动模式的动物的行为。