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Spatial Foraging Platform — Project Plan

Vision

Build, validate, document, and disseminate a modular home-cage platform for spatially structured ethological behavior, with production-ready hardware, release-ready software, user documentation, validation datasets, and a methods/resource manuscript.

Strategic goals

  • Converge on a modular home-cage hardware, firmware, and synchronization architecture suitable for chronic neural-recording experiments.
  • Demonstrate a working MVP custom experiment end-to-end with sync to external recording hardware.
  • Validate the platform in an n=9 module field test and refine UI/UX, maintenance, and analysis paths based on real use.
  • Deliver production-intent PCBAs and a locked BOM that fits within the McDonnell NRP budget.
  • Hand off operation to non-engineering users (ABC and HLAB) operating from documentation alone.
  • Publish a methods/resource manuscript and release the full platform (CAD, firmware, software, docs, examples) under an open-source license.

Timeline anchor

Week 0: 2026-06-08. All week ranges below derive from this date.

Current status

Field Value
Phase Phase 5 — HLAB Field Test & ABC test prep
Hardware status Alpha
Software status Alpha
Week Week 12 (as of 2026-09-04)

Phase timeline

flowchart TB
  subgraph nth [NTH]
    p0["Phase 0 Architecture - Jun 2026 - done"]
    p2["Phase 2 Engineering Sprint - Jul 2026 - done"]
    p4["Phase 4 Final PCBA - Aug 2026 - done"]
    p6["Phase 6 UI and UX Refinement - Sep 2026"]
    p8["Phase 8 Manuscript - Jan 2027"]
    p9["Phase 9 Release - Feb 2027"]
    p0 --> p2 --> p4 --> p6 --> p8 --> p9
  end

  subgraph abc [ABC]
    p1a["Phase 1A UI and UX Kickoff - Jun 2026 - done"]
    p3a["Phase 3A Maintainability - Aug 2026 - done"]
    p1a --> p3a
  end

  subgraph hlab [HLAB]
    p1b["Phase 1B Experiment Kickoff - Jun 2026 - done"]
    p3b["Phase 3B Custom MVP - Aug 2026 - done"]
    p1b --> p3b
  end

  subgraph joint [Joint]
    p5["Phase 5 Field Tests - Aug 2026 - active"]
    p7["Phase 7 User Independence - Oct 2026"]
    p5 --> p7
  end

  p1a --> p2
  p1b --> p2
  p3a --> p4
  p3b --> p4
  p4 --> p5
  p5 --> p6
  p6 --> p7
  p7 --> p8
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Phase 0 — NTH Architectural Engineering

Weeks 0–1. Lead: NTH.

Converge on the hardware, communication, synchronization, and diagnostic architecture before user-facing design begins. Architecture decisions are captured in [docs/](docs/), an initial BOM is committed, and an alpha prototype (n=3 modules plus a base station) is sent to fab.

Phase 1A — ABC UI/UX Kickoff

Weeks 2–4. Lead: ABC. Support: NTH. Parallel with Phase 1B.

Define how a non-engineering user configures, calibrates, runs, monitors, and maintains the system. The phase produces enough user stories, task templates, and UI/UX direction for NTH to begin building a mockup.

Phase 1B — HLAB User Implementation Kickoff

Weeks 2–4. Lead: HLAB. Support: NTH. Parallel with Phase 1A.

Define how specialized experiments are authored, executed, synchronized, and analyzed. The experiment API surface, sync requirements, and at least one MVP custom experiment are specified for NTH to scaffold against.

Phase 2 — NTH Engineering Sprint

Weeks 5–7. Lead: NTH.

Convert the ABC and HLAB kickoff requirements into a usable prototype stack: alpha module electronics brought up, base-station communications running, basic command/event/sync paths working, and a UI/UX mockup ready for ABC review.

Phase 3A — ABC UI/UX Feedback + Maintainability

Weeks 8–10. Lead: ABC. Support: NTH. Parallel with Phase 3B.

Stress-test the user-facing workflow against the alpha prototype. The phase captures UI revisions, maintenance interval assumptions, and service / fault-reporting requirements before final electronics are locked in.

Phase 3B — HLAB Custom Experiment MVP

Weeks 8–10. Lead: HLAB. Support: NTH. Parallel with Phase 3A.

Demonstrate that the platform can run a real custom experiment end-to-end and synchronize with external recording hardware. A minimal animal assay produces analyzable output and surfaces the gaps in the API, sync, and analysis paths.

Phase 4 — NTH Final Engineering Assessment for PCBA

Weeks 10–12. Lead: NTH.

Roll alpha-hardware findings, ABC maintainability feedback, and HLAB MVP feedback into production-intent electronics. Final module and base-station PCBAs are submitted for assembly and the production-intent BOM is locked.

Phase 5 — ABC + HLAB Field Tests

Weeks 12–16. Leads: ABC + HLAB. Support: NTH.

Run an n=9 module open-field test and evaluate mechanical reliability, sensing reliability, output quality, and analysis readiness. Remaining UI and API issues are catalogued, and a simplified analysis workflow is published as [sfm-analysis](https://github.com/Neurotech-Hub/SFM/tree/main/packages/sfm-analysis) (pip install sfm-analysis).

Phase 6 — NTH UI/UX Refinement

Weeks 16–20. Lead: NTH.

Incorporate field-test feedback into final module firmware, base-station software, UI/UX, calibration, fault reporting, sync, and data export. User and developer documentation reach a complete draft state.

Phase 7 — ABC + HLAB User Independence

Weeks 20–30. Leads: ABC + HLAB. Support: NTH.

Transition from NTH-driven operation to user-driven operation. Final platform software, developer documentation, and user documentation are released; ABC and HLAB confirm they can set up, run, calibrate, and diagnose the platform independently, and feedback is collected for any remaining production blockers.

Phase 8 — Manuscript Development

Weeks 30–36. Lead: NTH. Support: ABC + HLAB.

Convert the engineering decisions, behavioral validation, electrophysiology / sync validation, and analysis examples into a methods/resource manuscript. Sections are assigned, figures prepared, and a complete draft circulated for review.

Phase 9 — Final Documentation + Manuscript Submission

Weeks 36+. Lead: NTH. Support: ABC + HLAB.

Submit the manuscript and launch the platform as an open-source, supported NTH resource. CAD, firmware, software, BOM, assembly and calibration guides, example configurations, and analysis examples are published, and outreach to other labs begins.