Demonstrates improved control of animal activity monitoring in chronobiology, suggesting enhanced research efficiency.
*Corresponding author e-mail: raphaeldc@ymail.com Introduction: The programmable, application-specific embedded systems appear to be an attractive solution in terms of easy of programming, design cost, power, portability and time-tomarket. Currently, biological data processing relies on the highend systems equipped with expensive, general propose processors. Methods: The future generation of bioinformatics requires the more flexible and cost-effective computing platforms to meet its rapidly growing market. The proposed study was the result of a project of discipline Special Topics in Microcontrollers Course of Electrical Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte with the Laboratory of Chronobiology (LabCrono) of that university. This was an upgrade to the system developed in Lab- VIEW™ that monitors the activity of animals (Rattus novergicus and Callithrix jacchus ) by motion sensors. Results: The system was in use did not have an automated control both the timing of lights on the drive. This was done by timers in the rooms of the experiment and always had to be reprogrammed when the lack of energy. The upgrade has enabled improvements in the routines of the system than the previous addition of new routines interacting with the Lab VIEW™ drive and control circuit of the lamp (DCCL) composed of a microcontroller (PIC16F877A - Microchip™). As a final result of the system improved, there are signs of the sensors from the cages of animals being received by terminal National Instruments™ BC50 leading to the plate of a NI PCI6025 Desktop. The LabVIEW™ controls the signals received by said plate and in accordance with definitions parameterized by researchers write data to a file in ASCII format. These data will be available for the generation of actogramas to be used in evaluating the results of different research projects. In parallel, the DCCL also monitors the status of lamps and inform the state of them in the monitoring system. Conclusion: We conclude therefore that the use of microcontrollers is useful in troubleshooting of automation and control of experimental procedures in chronobiology to facilitate researchers in the field, more efficient control of experimental procedures. Support: CNPq. Publication History Article published online: 16 June 2026 © 2009. Brazilian Sleep Academy. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Thieme Revinter Publicações Ltda. Rua Rego Freitas, 175, loja 1, República, São Paulo, SP, CEP 01220-010, Brazil
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