Portable Ventilator Version Two
The failure of respiratory system can caused by different disorders and injuries is a source of great stress in developing and semi developed countries. Lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease prove to be a source for these failures in these countries. In intensive car
2025-06-28 16:28:49 - Adil Khan
Portable Ventilator Version Two
Project Area of Specialization Biomedical EngineeringProject SummaryThe failure of respiratory system can caused by different disorders and injuries is a source of great stress in developing and semi developed countries. Lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease prove to be a source for these failures in these countries. In intensive care unit (ICU), the risks involved in the movement of such patients to suitable health care centers, Also the trauma caused by the whole situation. Mechanical ventilation provide a cool breeze for patient who is in the throse of life and death to avoid failure of inspiratory system in such a movement so, the proposed prototype will aid patients by providing mechanical ventilation to survive in such a defining moment. Existing ventilators in hospitals are very high in cost and low in number as it turned out during COVID-19 pandemic that ventilators are many times less than patients need. Almost all developing countries have had to go through same health care crises to combat corona epidemic clinically. Apart from their higher cost, their maintenance also adds a burdensome. Another dilemma related to developing countries is the saturation of basic resources to only urban areas. Specially availability of portable ventilators to provide urgent care to patients during transport (ambulence services) is close to none. In remote and deprived areas such kind of facilities are still missing, and as a result there is deficiency of ventilators at all.
Unfortunately our country Pakistan facing same health issues. Statistics clearly show that there is a shortage of ventilators in most of hospitals of our country. According to WHO only 1650 ventilators are available for 220 million population.
As a matter of fact, this shortage caused by high cost and complex structure of currently available ventilators in the market. Resultantly, a unique solution exist is to have a low-cost, small size, easy to use, efficient and portable ventilator. Thats what, We are trying to fill this vacuum by develope and prototype such a life machine.
Project ObjectivesPakistan is a developing country with a population of more than 220 million and it’s difficult to provide high level health facilities to the entire population specially at remote areas. The availability of ventilators at rural areas specially during transport to high level treatment is close to none. During the pandemic of COVID-19, millions of people died around the globe due to the insufficient management of healthcare, It’s obvious that main reason of deaths was the lack of artificial respiratory devices (ventilators). In order to tackle this serious threat, we propose to develop a working prototype of portable ventilator to assist with the shortage of ventilators not only in Pakistan, but also around the globe.
The main objectives of this project are;
- To provide a reliable, cost-effective, easy to use, practical and efficient portable ventilator that can be easily moved from one place to another.
- To secure the lives of deserving patients at rural areas by providing such a life machine
- To provide accurate detection of disease and analysis of a patient in real-time.
- To provide instantaneous monitoring of the patient’s breathing activity during emergency commuting of patient to hospitals.
- To provide improved disease management for satisfactory patient experience.
According to the literature review, two methods of portable ventilator designing chosen as following :
Bellow-based design: First method is pretty simple, a plastic chamber is used to house bellows that serve as reservoir bags for the breathing circuit. The patient gas circuit resides inside these bellows whereas the driving gas circuit lies outside them. So, these bellows serve as an interface between the gas for the breathing system and the ventilator driving gas. This method can be easily implement comparatively and the taidal volume and flow rate can be set accuretly. The disadvantages of this method is less effectiveness due to the mechanical wear tear of air bags and also it needs more space and effects the portability of device also.
Piston-based design: In these ventilators, an electric motor is used to compress the gas in the breathing circuit. The force of the motor compresses the gas inside the piston because of which a pressure is caused to push the gas into the patient’s lungs. This method is more effective compare to first method, Its increase the accuracy and reduce the size of device but it is hard to insure required tidal volume, minute volume and other parameters so, it will increse the complexity of project .
After a comprehensive literature review second method has been selected while considering cost, effectiveness, and feasibility to be developed in Pakistan.
An Overview on Hardware Implementation:
A controlled air flow mechanism will be develop between the oxygen and gas supply of hospital or of the ambulance using sensors, transducer, gain amplifier to maintain the system’s output signal, emergency alarms to notify clinician of patient’s status or any system error and lcd display to show the settled parameters. A circuit required to monitor the flow of the mixture of air and oxygen will be design in order to insure required tidal volume and minute flow (litre/minute), also to monitor the pressure of supplied air and oxygen a unit composed of pressure sensors will be design. A pneumatic block will be designed using control valves, gas cylinder, pressure regulators and filters. In case of a gas failure, the same unit can serve as a pressured gas reservoir. A complete power architecture design will be developed to make the design power efficient and capable of functioning on a battery.
Benefits of the ProjectThe final product of this project will provide a state of the art, comparatively low cost, easy-to-use device for diagnosing and monitoring the patient’s breathing through a portable ventilator and will serve as an assisting tool for respiratory system all over Pakistan. Moreover, the lack of availability of portable ventilators during the travel time for patients living in the rural areas will be eliminated as the device is designed to have a flexibility to monitor the patient’s breathing condition during transport with minimum operating requirement. The designed biomedical device will be in high demand as it turned out, most of the people were died due to the lack of ventilators during the epidemic of COVID-19 in Pakistan and all over the world. Many medical institutes and emergency healthcare services will be looking to acquire this device in their facilities. Primary healthcare providers, such as dispensaries and low category hospitals can be upgraded by providing them a life machine within low cost.
Technical Details of Final DeliverableThe final deliverables are both Hardware and Software.
- Hardware deliverables:
a)Pressure Generator
b)Pressure Reservoir
c)Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
d)Microcontroller
e)Pressure Sensor
f)Flow Sensor
g) 7 inch FT LCD module for Arduino Mega
h)Solenoid Valve
i)Pressure Regulator
j) Power Supply
2.Software:
a)Firmware in Microcontrollers
Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry MedicalOther IndustriesCore Technology OthersOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for PeopleRequired Resources| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 79911 | |||
| Pressure Generator | Equipment | 1 | 9366 | 9366 |
| Pressure and flow regulator | Equipment | 1 | 6621 | 6621 |
| Arduino Mega 2560 | Equipment | 2 | 2400 | 4800 |
| Miscellaneous | Miscellaneous | 1 | 10000 | 10000 |
| Winson Micro Flow sensor F1031 | Equipment | 2 | 11212 | 22424 |
| Solenoid valve | Equipment | 2 | 5000 | 10000 |
| 7 inch FT LCD module for Arduino Mega | Equipment | 1 | 10500 | 10500 |
| 3.2 inch IPS TFT LCD display 480x320 | Equipment | 1 | 1200 | 1200 |
| Pressure sensor module MPXV7002DP | Equipment | 2 | 2500 | 5000 |