IIT Mandi Researchers Develop Two Low Cost Portable Ventilators

Mandi, May 28: In a bid to help the country during this difficult time, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (IIT Mandi) on Thursday announced that they have developed two low-cost portable ventilators. The refresher stated that the developed prototypes are easy to use and can be taken to remote locations in case of a medical emergency.

 

 

The smart ventilator prototype is a mechanised Artificial Manual Breathing Unit (AMBU) bag with options to control breath rate and volume of air going into the patient’s lungs. And the unique feature of the developed product is, apart from manual operation, it can be controlled by a mobile application over Wi-Fi as well. For that, they have also developed an app ‘IIT Mandi Ventilator’ from which they can start-stop the ventilator and change the Breath/ Minute (BPM) rate.

 

“Designed especially for COVID-19 pandemic, this low-cost ventilator can be operated manually as well as using a smartphone app connected over Wi-Fi,” Dr. Apran Gupta, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi said in a statement. “It can offer some protection to our medical staff, who can operate the ventilator remotely,” Gupta added.

 

The ventilator can be directly operated with an AC supply or from an external battery. The present ventilator is for non-critical patients who need some help in respiration. The research team has also developed a mechanical ventilator by using a low-cost self-inflating bag operated by an electric motor costing under Rs 25,000. They used the motor generally used in an electric ventilator along with the Artificial Manual Breathing Unit (AMBU) bag or self-inflation bag to achieve the goal.

 

In this ventilator, a single rack and pinion mechanism has been used in which the self-inflatable bag is compressed from one side that would blow the oxygen into the patient's lungs either through invasive or noninvasive mode. The developed ventilator has an interface between the ventilator to the patient and the ventilator to the operator, the Insititute said.