Ambu-bag Based Mechanical Ventilation System
The State University of New York at Buffalo Updated: April 21, 2020
Addressing The Ventilator Shortage
There is currently a severe shortage on the mechanical ventilator that is used to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients. In response to this shortage, we started this fast-prototyping mechanical ventilator project. With the help of additive manufacturing technology and open source motion control community, the first basic functional version was delivered for testing within 72 hours. This project is study case for implementation of fast prototyping technologies with limited resources, and also has a great potential to assist health care system under crisis condition like the pandemic of COVID-19.
This project is still in developing stage, more information including design details and testing results will be updated soon on this webpage.
Ambu-bag Based Ventilator Design
Mechanical Design
Developing a mechanical actuating device that can be coupled to a manual Ambu bag to enable long-term, automated ventilation is the basic design starting point, it is inspired by the MIT E-VENT project and many other DIY ventilator videos posted on Youtube. Different from others, in our design, the additive manufacturing technology which is specifically developed for fast prototyping is strategically incorporated, to achieve the best performance of structure reliability and motion control accuracy.
Motion Control
The motion controller is base on RepRap Arduino Mega Pololu Shield and Marlin Firmware open source projects. These projects benefit from a large development community, stand on the shoulders of giants, with some modifican, we can deliver high quality, high performance control firmware on very affordable hardware.
Performance Testing
The fast prototyped mechanical ventilation system can achieve a respiration rate up to 30 cycles per min, and a maximum pressure of more than 60 cmH2O, under atmospheric pressure, the delivery volume of each respiration can achieve 750 ml.
The ventilator performance parameters can be much more complex on patients. We are working closely with UB Behling Human Simulation Center for more testing on Simulation Manikin, more testing results will be posted later on. Also fine tunings are being made based on testing results and health care professionals' suggestion.
Project Team
Chi Zhou, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at UB
Sanjay Sethi, MD, professor, chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB
Ruogang Zhao, PhD, associate professor in the UB Department of Biomedical Engineering at UB
Albert Titus, PhD, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UB
Julia Faller, DO, MS, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology, Clinical Director of Behling Simulation Center, UB Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences
Tianjiao Wang, PhD student, the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at UB