summaryStops {servosphereR}

Summarize the number and length of stops

Description

Caulculate how many times an insect stopped walking during its recorded movement and the average length of those stops.

Usage

summaryStops(list, summary.df = NA, stop.threshold = 0)

Arguments

list

A list of data frames, each of which must have a column recording the velocity variable.

summary.df

The data frame object within which you are storing path summary variables. The default is NA if you do not currently have a summary data frame object started. When set to NA the function will create a new summary data frame. When an object is provided, the function will merge the summary data frame with the new data.

stop.threshold

The velocity below which the insect is considered to be stopped. The default is 0, but should be adjusted based on observations of the insect and the recording equipment.

Details

This function evaluates a path for the total number of stops made during the recording, as well as the average length of those stops. The function requires the user to provide a movement threshold, below which the insect is considered to be stopped. The servosphere may record small movements of insect appendages or side to side motion as movement but typically this will be much slower than actual movement. Estimates of this threshold speed can be obtained by comparing recordings of the data to videos of the actual movement or in person observation.