NRI: INT: COLLAB: RUMEN UNDERSTANDING THROUGH MILLIPEDE-ENGINEERED NAVIGATION AND SENSING (RUMENS)

just as nasa used the remotely operated vehicles (rov) spirit and opportunity to gather and relay information that continues to broaden understanding of mars, this program will develop rovs that will transform our knowledge of rumen biology and fermentation chemistry. the rumen is one of the primary digestive chambers in the stomach of a ruminant animal, such as a cow. although the cow rumen is a very specific environment, improving our ability to study this ecosystem provides notable opportunity to enhance understanding of fermentation, food production, and energy generation, not just within cattle but within anaerobic fermentation environments in general. rumen microorganisms are some of the world's most efficient fermenters of fibrous materials high in cellulose; however, only a fraction of the species in the rumen microbiome have been sequenced or cultured. the rumen ecosystem is a complex heterogeneous environment stratified vertically and horizontally that contains myriad specialized microclimates caused by differing density of feed particles and o2 concentrations, among other factors. these microclimates are believed to create optimal environments for unique microbial species that may have differing fermentation capacity, and the stratification within the rumen may be one cause for difficulty in culturing many of these microorganisms outside the animal. cattle provide a unique model organism for studying anaerobic fermentation not only because of their individualized fiber fermentation capabilities but also because their size allows for surgical procedures that enable unique research access directly into the rumen. traditionally, the insertion point for the rumen rov is through the cannula, a surgically placed port through the side of the animal into the upper portion of the rumen. although manual sampling through the cannula is the industry standard, it is not ideal because it is thought to disturb the rumen environment by introducing o2 and mixing rumen contents. an indwelling rumen rov would not have these limitations and would enhance the opportunity to link specific microbial species with physical location and chemical characteristics in the rumen. this improved understanding will not only lead to advancements in rumen biology and efficiency of meat and milk production, but will also enhance our understanding of fermentation chemistry, microbiology, and could potentially lead to new species identification for use in biofuel production and other key industrial endpoints. furthermore, if widely adopted, the rov would enable investigation of rumen microbiomes that will scale across multiple animals, multiple laboratories, and multiple herds, enabling a big-data-fueled secondary community of investigators. the proposed research addresses the nri-2.0 program goals of scalability by providing animal agriculture robots for monitoring and sampling the rumen environment that will impact a variety of animals (e.g., cows, sheep, goats) and opening opportunity for farmers to improve food production efficiency, safety and quality. further, the program will utilize innovative approaches for developing and delivering robotics into animal science curricula (such integration does not currently exist) and to impact a large group of second year undergraduates across multiple colleges.