Low Cost Locally Sourced Ventilator

On March 3^rd  2020 Sai Ravela assembled a team to develop a design that is now under development for the production of ventilators. Our intent is a design that can be manufactured and deployed rapidly around the globe with Commercial Off The Shelf*, locally sourced components to help meet the challenge of the Covid-19 emergency. 

Main points:

• Design standards: UK Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator System Specification
• Aimed at patients entering the acute stage.
• Filtered, heated, and oxygen- and moisture-mixed air with tunable mixing ratio, flow rate, pressure and temperature. 
• Air supply provided by compressor with 50psi line/15lts/min (included).Hospital lines can be connected.
• Oxygen provided by concentrator or tank. Hospital lines can be connected.
  • We are presently working on low-cost concentrators
• All plug-to-connect pneumatic circuitry
• Air and virus filters, and water collectors standard
• Ardupilots repurposed for the embedded system.
  • PWM servos (e.g. from hobby aircraft) drive low-cost proportional valve control.
  • Wifi or LTE port to provide wide area or large-scale monitoring and setup respectively, and remote support.
• Sensing for static and dynamic pressure, temperature, humidity, concentration (optional). Spirometric synchronization.
• Hybrid technology: Uses physical principles and machine learning to derive amazing performance from generic  components
• Maximally Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) and locally sourced components for international version
• Robotic manufacture of kits for rapid, scalable, and cost-effective national outreach. 
• 24/7 and emergency systems

Project Team:

• Sai Ravela, Project Director
• Dr. Aamir Abbas, Anesthesiologist (BIDMC) 
• Amro Alshareef, Mechanical Engineering
• Salem Ali, Mechanical Engineering
• Angela Ellis, Outreach (MIT)
• Raffaele Ferrari, Physics (MIT)
• Michael Moreau, NP/Vent Specialist
• Adam Meusel, Manufacturing (Raytheon)
• Dr. Tisha Small, General Practitioner
• Dan Straka, Production 

Schedule:

We are in the prototyping stage.  We anticipate field testing by April 15. 

We aim to move from the prototype phase to a manufacturing process that is scalable. Mark 1 is for export (India is primary focus), Mark 2 for US. 

*Parts Suppliers (to be completed):

Amazon.com -- various vendors therein. Some quality issues have remained, but amazing fast delivery (before delivery date)
Arrow Electronics -- all our chip level components
CPRSavers -- oxygen supplies
EPartsStore -- misc. medical tubing/pipes
ExpressPCB -- all our boards
Home Depot -- various tools, boxes, tubes, 
Trimantec -- valves

Contact: we are working on this voluntarily in a perosnal capacity, and not as a part of MIT sponsored research.
To invest in this project or offer other support please contact Angela Ellis at aellis@mit.edu.

• video 1: Tidal Forcing at a specified frequency delivering a volume at a set pressure. . 
• Video 2: Spirometric synchronization. Machine assists by delivering an extra volume of enriched air at diferent rates.
  Video 3:  Spirometric mode with the prototype test unit.