Session: 05-06-01 Biomedical Devices I

Paper Number: 70897

Start Time: Friday, 12:05 PM

70897 - Design and Testing of a Low-Cost Ventilator to Battle the Global Pandemic 

COVID-19 is an infectious disease that has dramatically affected the world, causing a pandemic and changing many aspects of people’s lives and how they interact.  The condition is highly contagious and aims at a person’s respiratory system.  However, due to how the disease is transmitted and the incubation period, which is 14 days, a person may not know they have the disease until it is too late.  A ventilator, a medical device that helps patients breathe when they are unable to do it independently, is needed because COVID-19 inflames the airways in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe normally.  Ventilators are not the cure for COVID-19 but are a piece of equipment to help people breathe until that body function can be done independently.  Such equipment can be expensive to acquire and cumbersome to operate.  The Spartan Ventilator uses off-the-shelf equipment, economic controls, and robust techniques to supply a patient’s lungs with oxygen. The system is designed for oxygen tanks that are commonly found within hospitals. However, we will substitute this source for a mechanical pump. All processes are controlled and monitored by an LCD touchscreen attached to an Arduino.  The user interface is presented with simple buttons and menus to maximize screen space, provide quick readings of pressure, and control breaths per minute (BPM). PVC pipes, a cheap and durable material suitable for the non-volatile transportation of gas, were used. The valves we use are not definitive; they can be replaced with any 12V valve. However, the challenge is to find a pair that can open and close quickly with enough responsiveness.  The significant differences with the Spartan Ventilator are the price and the simplicity that the new technology has.  The Spartan Ventilator can be very cheap compared to other professional ventilators that can be found in hospitals. The ventilator can be ten times less expensive than different professional ventilators while having the same efficiency and power.  Overall, the Spartan Ventilator can be best selected during national disasters to help save people's lives and be within a reasonable value range financially. The Spartan Ventilator’s efficiency is only 18% less than the other ventilator because of the many different modes and functions that other ventilators can perform.  However, being in lockdown while undertaking this project presented many issues, not just technical.  Many of the problems the group faced were logistical.  Unlike previous disease outbreaks, the lockdown made it challenging to meet in-person to complete tasks simply.  Video conferencing software was heavily used and relied on for team meetings and for work sessions.  Though these issues the team faced limited our level of productivity, the team was able to design, construct, and test a proof-of-concept ventilator that was successful in functioning as intended.  An economic analysis was conducted to compare the efficiency and power of other ventilator designs and models to the Spartan Ventilator.  The Spartan Ventilator can be developed further to make it more ergonomic and to increase its efficiency.  This design will help the world in the case of another pandemic and a shortage of ventilator facilities and equipment.        

 

Presenting Author: Eric Near San Jose State University

Authors:

Eric Near San Jose State University
Mustafa Ihsan San Jose State University
Waylon Chan San Jose State University
Vimal Viswanathan San Jose State University