Updates on the OpenBehavior 3D Print and Video Repositories

Oct 27, 2022 | Adafruit, Arduino, Community Call to Action, In the Community, Open Source Resource, OpenBehavior Team Update, Teaching

We recently launched a repository of 3D printed tools for neuroscience research (in August 2022) and started a new GitHub repository to make the designs available in a single repository last month. Thirty five designs are now available in the repository, which you can access here. These designs came from community contributions and from the GitHub repositories of projects that we have posted about over the past several years. They include designs for things like food and fluid regulation (FED3, OpenSkinnerBox, different models of syringe pumps), optogenetics and electrophysiology tools (HOPE, Finchscope), and parts for specialized  items used for behavioral testing (Catalepsy Bar, 3DOC). Other devices such as protective cases for electronics, commutators, and nosepokes are also available on our GitHub site. 

One of the goals of this effort was to validate designs posted to our repository. We are not aware of any efforts to validate designs in other repositories and collections, and feel that this is a valuable effort to potential users of the designs. Validation should make it easier for a potential user to try out any of the designs in our collection.

To this end, over the past several weeks, Kevin Chavez Lopez has been making prints for the tools available in our repository. So far, designs from posts made on OpenBehavior since 2017 have been validated, this accounts for a total of 26 validated projects. Most tools have printed without issue. For some, it was necessary to revise the designs and the updated files have been posted to our repository. The original files were kept as well. In a few cases, Kevin will be reaching out to the authors of the designs to let them know about the changes that he had to make to print the objects. The validation is still a work in progress. We plan to validate designs contributed by the community, and now posted to our GitHub repository, later this year. 

We are still seeking more designs for this repository and also for our Video Repository. We will be reaching out directly to behavioral and systems neuroscience labs over the next several weeks to recruit more content for both repositories. In the meantime, if you would like to contribute, please use these forms to submit designs for simple lab tools here and raw videos from behavioral experiments here.