UI Overview
RODENT is a platform for researchers to configure an experiment, work with a team and inspect a simulation. We are not presenting the current statistical agent as a scientifically validated rat model. It is a placeholder that lets us test the platform and its model and template interfaces.
What a researcher does
Create an account or sign in. On the Projects page, choose + New project to open a separate popup for the starting arena and project details. Available cards are read from validated JSON presets. The current integration branch has six valid presets: MCSF, Open Field, Light/Dark Box, T-Maze, Four-Room Arena and Complex Habitat. Other ideas remain labelled as planned and cannot be selected. After creating or joining a project, select it and use + Add member in Project team, then choose Open workspace in new tab to work through Setup, Run and Review. A deployed site may show fewer presets until its build is updated.
Any active account can create a project and becomes its lead. The lead can add people from the project's team section, then assign a project role and the specific modules they may edit. For example, one researcher may edit only odour while another may edit light and treatment. An observer can view without changing the experiment. The instructor account keeps all-module access for course oversight.
One workspace, clear ownership
The website handles accounts, projects, team access, experiment selection, setup forms, Run controls, results downloads and replay playback. Embedded Godot supplies the 3D arena and simulation engine without a second set of visible menus. The standalone Godot app still has its own editor controls.
The website has three top-level areas. Setup keeps Conditions, Arena, Templates and Environment in a stable side panel. Conditions contains simulation time, medicine or placebo, light, odour and sound. Arena contains starting doors. Templates contains the available preset catalog and current region surfaces. Environment can fetch historical or forecast weather and suggest ambient light and sound values. Those suggestions are illustrative, not calibrated exposures, and temperature is source data only. Run gives the 3D view as much room as possible and has a compact Doors strip for live changes by an arena editor. A live door change does not reset time and is recorded as an intervention on the next step. Review shows a summary, readable JSON in the browser, JSON/CSV downloads and saved replays with a timeline deck over the arena.
On desktop the side panel scrolls independently of the 3D view, and Hide controls gives the arena more room. Focus on arena fills the screen but keeps compact Start/Pause and permitted door controls, with Escape or Exit focus view to return. On narrow screens the controls stack above the arena. The project also reserves labelled drop zones for later rat, sound, light, odour, temperature and treatment models. Dropped files are not uploaded or executed yet. The local server and hosted Supabase are intended to enforce saved edit permissions, not the browser UI alone; live database migrations and role checks still need deployment verification.
This grouping uses progressive disclosure so a researcher sees the immediate task first and opens secondary settings only when needed. Each experiment opens in a dedicated browser tab while the project list remains in the original tab. That workspace has just one embedded Godot canvas, not a second set of controls. If the browser blocks a new tab, the workspace opens in the current tab instead.
Ahmed has implemented a 2D canvas for drawing a custom arena and saving it as an experiment on feature/arena-editor. We document those working controls separately from the Templates shelf in the checked integration build, because the builder has not yet been merged into that build or verified on the hosted portal. This is an integration status, not an "unbuilt feature" status.
AI Attribution: This page was updated with OpenAI Codex assistance and should be reviewed by the team before submission.