The Animal Transport System (ATS) is a motorized transport system for samples, typically small animals as e.g. mice or rats to position them in the center of the imaging instrument and to vary the position via software control very precisely (less than 1 mm reproducibility). In combined instruments such as PET/MR or PET/CT, the different imaging positions of the modalities can be easily reached. In addition, software controlled multi staging can be realized to cover larger FOVs by acquiring several images and combining them.

The ATS is operated by the touchscreen monitor attached to the imaging instrument or by Paravision software. Additionally the ATS can also be partly operated by the ATS operating panel mounted at the front of the instrument.

The cover of the ATS in the MR version is RF shielding so that it is recommended to close the cover all the time prior to MR imaging. For CT instruments, the cover contains a lead shield and has to be closed before a scan can be acquired.