CMU, Pitt Researchers Launch 'Roboventilator' Project To Address Ventilator Shortage
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- If there aren't enough, where do you get more ventilators?
"Quite expensive, bulky to transport. It's not like we can just order a bunch of them and off we go," professor of robotics at the CMU Robotics Institute, Howie Choset, PhD, points out about traditional ventilators, or breathing machines.
So researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh are developing a low-cost version called the Roboventilator.
"Robots sense, plan, and act," he explains.
The system involves a compressor and sensors "detect how much air should go in, how much volume, how much pressure goes in, so it's customized to the needs of that particular patient," Choset says.
The modular design requires only a few parts. "In the field, if something breaks, you don't have to replace the whole unit. You just replace one part."
It's small, portable, easy to ship, and relatively inexpensive: "It's not going to be as good as a hospital ventilator, because those are sophisticated, pieces of equipment, but they're pretty good, and they're going to cost $500 to $700."
He hope these could be used in places that may not have the resources of a major medical center, or in patients who need help breathing but not full ventilator support.
The research is early yet, but the supply-chain-sensitive team is moving along on a preliminary model.
"We are not just building it to get one built, just to get a prototype demonstrated next week. We are building it in such a way that we know every component to the system," Choset says. "There are 10,000 parts available at a common supplier, and should that supplier go out of business, we have two other suppliers already lined up."
After lab testing, the researchers will take the device before the FDA for approval. They hope this could be done quickly, so that the robotic ventilators could be available in case of a fall surge.
The researchers are pursuing sponsors for the effort and, in the meantime, have begun a crowdfunding campaign to get the project underway.
