SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY DETECTING THE PRESENCE OF CAGES IN THE SHELF OF A FACILITY

• US 20150359189A1
• Filed: 01/30/2014
• Published: 12/17/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tecniplast S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Tecniplast S.p.A.
• Inventors: BERNARDINI, Pietro, ROSATI, Giorgio, RIGAMONTI, Alessandro
• Granted Patent: US 10,206,372 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 1/0047 Air-conditioning, e.g. ventilation, of animal housings
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 1/031 Cages for laboratory animals; Cages for measuring metabolism of animals
• CPC Class Codes: A01K 29/005 Monitoring or measuring activity, e.g. detecting heat or mating

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system for automatically detecting the presence of a cage or tray for containing laboratory animals in a specific position of a facility shelf and to a method for managing the data relating to the cage, implemented by means of said system, particularly advantageous for the laboratory technician. In particular, the present invention relates to a system (1) composed of a shelf (20) comprising a plurality of devices (23) designed to detect the position in the facility and the ID of a cage (30), a central control unit (73) designed to process, through software, the information received in order to offer the operator the possibility of tracking and managing, by means of a database, the whole facility. Numerous other functions of the system are included in the present invention, such as the function designed to detect and notify, visually or through the software, the correct positioning of a cage in the shelf.

Claims

1. A system for inventory, position tracking, and management of information relating to animal housing cages for housing laboratory animals, comprising:

a shelf defining a plurality of cage seats for receiving the animal housing cages, each of said cage seats comprising an RFiD reader;

one or more animal housing cages, each of said one or more animal housing cages having a cover;

an RFiD TAG associated to said cover of said one or more animal housing cages;

a data collection and management computing device for managing data collected by said RFiD reader;

wherein the data collection and management computing device is configured to automatically detect the information associated to the RFiD TAG of a cage of the one or more animal housing cages when the cage is inserted in one of said cage seats of said shelf.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein each of said one or more animal housing cages further comprises a filtering element inserted in said cover, and wherein said RFiD TAG is incorporated in an adhesive element which is directly attached to said filtering element.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein each of said one or more animal housing cages further comprises a filtering element inserted in said cover and closed by a filter cover, and wherein said RFiD TAG is incorporated in a casing and removably connected to said filter cover.

4. The system according to claim 3, wherein said casing comprises a coupling-release device for removably coupling said casing to said filter cover.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein said coupling-release device that removably couples said casing to said filter cover are to provide a snap-fit coupling.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein each of said one or more animal housing cages further comprises a filtering element inserted in said cover and closed by a filter cover, and wherein said RFiD TAG is incorporated in a casing which is inserted in a cavity on said filter cover configured to receive said casing.

7. The system according to claim 1 further comprising a local control unit that manages the data collected by said RFiD readers, said local control unit being in communication with said data collection and management computing device.

8. The system according to claim 7, wherein the RFiD readers are arranged below each cage seat in order to read the RFiD TAG associated to an animal housing cage of the one or more animal housing cages positioned on the cage seat.

9. The system according to claim 8, further comprising position sensing devices for each of the cage seats, the position sensing devices configured to detect a correct positioning of the one or more animal housing cages in the cage seats of said shelf.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein each of said cage seats comprises at least a pair of guides for inserting and supporting the one or more animal housing cages, and wherein said position sensing devices in the cage seats of said shelf comprise, a switch arranged on at least one of said guides, said switch configured to be pressed only when said one or more animal housing cages are correctly inserted in the cage seats of the shelf.

11. The system according to claim 9, wherein said position sensing devices is configured to detect the presence of the one or more animal housing cages in the cage seats and to send cage presence data to the local control unit of the system that activates an RFiD reader associated to a corresponding cage position.

12. The system according to claim 11, further comprising a visual device configured to signal correct positioning of at least one animal housing cage of the one or more animal housing cages inside one of the cage seats.

13. The system according to claim 12, wherein said visual device comprises an LED frontally arranged on at least one of said guides.

14. A method for inventory, position tracking and management of information relating to animal housing cages for housing laboratory animals comprising:

providing a shelf having a plurality of cage seats for receiving the animal housing cages, each of said cage seats comprising an RFiD reader;

providing one or more animal housing cages, each of said one or more animal housing cages having a cover associated to an RFiD TAG;

providing a local control unit configured to receive and manage, data collected by said RFiD readers; and

arranging the one or more animal housing cages on said shelf and monitoring the data associated to each of the one or more animal housing cages collected by said RFiD readers, wherein said information comprises at least a unique identification datum for each of the one or more animal housing cages and a unique identification datum for each of the cage seats on the shelf.

15. A cage for housing laboratory animals, comprising:

a basin, a cover, and a filtering element inserted in said cover and covered by a filter cover grid, wherein said cage comprises an RFiD TAG incorporated in an adhesive removably applied on said filtering element.

16. The cage according to claim 15, wherein said RFiD TAG is incorporated in a casing provided with coupling-release device for coupling the casing to said filter cover grid.

17. The cage according to claim 15, wherein a cavity is created in said filter cover grid, said RFiD TAG being inserted in said cavity, wherein said RFiD TAG is incorporated in a casing.