The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage across the world. At press time, more than 450,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus with approximately 20,500 deaths. The pandemic has also highlighted extreme shortages of medical supplies, including personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and ventilators for COVID-19 patients.
The lack of ventilators is most critical for patients hit hardest by COVID-19 – typically people 60-plus years of age and anyone with underlying medical conditions. These patients often suffer severe respiratory problems. A ventilator, a mechanical breathing machine, is a lifesaving tool when a patient’s lungs fill with fluid, which makes it difficult for the lungs to oxygenate blood.
New York is the epicenter of the crisis in the US. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been most vocal about the lack of ventilators. He said New York needs at least 30,000 ventilators to handle the peak of the epidemic, which is predicted to hit the state in about two weeks. At press time, New York secured 7,000 additional ventilators, but only 400 of those came from the federal government.
Related: COVID-19 pandemic prompts more robot usage worldwide | Autonomous vehicle companies halt testing due to COVID-19
To combat this shortage, companies are partnering to ramp up production of ventilators. Yesterday, GE Healthcare and Ford Motor Company announced plans to work together. MIT researchers hope to soon publish open-source designs for a low-cost respirator. And now two Boston-based robotics startups at MassRobotics have paused their work to help fill the shortage.
The Ventilator Project
Alex Frost, Founder of FloraBot, and Tyler Mantel, Founder of Watertower Robotics, started The Ventilator Project, a non-profit looking to develop a low-cost ventilator specifically for COVID-19 patients. One ventilator costs about $40,000, according to estimates. Mantel told The Robot Report his team is rapidly prototyping a ventilator that will cost between $1,000-$2,000.
“The best analogy I can come up with is cars,” Mantel said. “Rolls-Royce has some amazing cars. You feel like you’re on a cloud when you drive one because you never feel the road. But you can also get a car for far less money that gets you to where you need to go. The ventilators currently on the market are designed for any type of patient. We’re building a ventilator specifically for COVID-19 patients. Think of it as a stripped down, bare bones version of what major companies produce.”
Mantel, understandably, didn’t share much about the design of the ventilator. But he said The Ventilator Project is consulting with a group of doctors on the ventilator design. Mantel said the ventilator will be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration under the Emergency Approval Process. If and when approved, The Ventilator Project hopes to get production up and running in 30 days and produce 1,000 ventilators within the first month.
“After that, we’ll ramp up production to help fill the anticipated shortage of 600,000 ventilators worldwide. We’re working on contracts with major manufacturers in the medical device space to use their under-utilized facilities to pump out ventilators.”
Community comes together
The Ventilator Project was officially formed on March 20. Mantel said by this Friday the company will have 100-plus volunteers on the team. “Alex came to me and said [the ventilator shortage] is a problem we need to solve,” Mantel said. “We talked for a few minutes then dropped everything and dove in. We’re in Boston – we put out the call and we’ve had so many people willing to help.”
MassRobotics donated any unused space in its 40,000-square-foot-facility to The Ventilator Project. Developing hardware requires physical space, of course. This can be tricky due to the physical distancing recommendations currently in place. Mantel said The Ventilator Project team is following all the recommendations for physical distancing.
“We’re sticking people separately in their own offices and being as cautious as we can,” Mantel said. “Anyone who is living with someone who is elderly doesn’t show up in the office.”
“We’re happy to provide space for these innovators to develop their tech and prototype” said Tom Ryden, Executive Director at MassRobotics. “It doesn’t surprise us that this group is coming up with a quick low cost solution. We have an amazing community of innovators, always sharing experiences and expertise with each other. This is not the first time our startups have collaborated with each other. We’re always proud at how our startups rally behind each other – we are really like a family! I believe this is why we’ve grown so quickly.”
Using robots to help the world
As is currently the case for many companies across the world, things have slowed down for Watertower Robotics. Founded in 2017, the company built a robot that inspects water pipes. The goal is to reduce the 20% of water currently lost through deteriorating infrastructure. The startup was one of three companies to win the Imagine H2O’s Urban Water Challenge in Stockholm, Sweden. It won funding to deploy its robots in Vietnam.
“For me, it’s the same mission I’ve always had,” said Mantel. “I want to affect lives in a positive way using robotics. At Watertower Robotics, we find water for people. I get excited to do these things for the world.”
The Ventilator Project set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for prototyping and testing purposes.
They need to look at the designs of old IPPB machines (and ventilators for that matter! – you know the ones you see on TV with the bellows?) – simple to use, analog dials, not a circuit board to be found.
Hi! I´m interested in your project. I´m from Mexico. Is there a way to share your design so that it can be approved by mexican authorities? we can put an assemby fascility here. We already have the place and we´re gathering a work group. We can hire employees quickly and we´re in a hurry, you know what I mean.
Best regards
I would strongly suggest you should not try to manufacture anything that has loads of electronics in it.
Write to us at : e_maagination@yahoo.co.uk, and we could discuss further on this.
Great Collection of Ideas Steve,
Let us help the group.
We have been working with our controls departments and have this available.
http://www.sandtron.com/pdf/Unitronics%20Medical%20Ventilator%20Applications_Brochure_April%202020.pdf
PLC and Software already developed for this ventilator industry.
Contact Dan Thomas or Darrick Houghton 1-800-387-5729
Sandtron Automation Burlington, Ontario Canada
Sir,
We are a Ventilator team from Bangladesh. Team
Name : Intensive _Breathers.
Assalamualilum,
( We Have a Successful Design of Low Cost
Portable Mechanical Ventilator for both ICU and
out door patients).
This is approved by Dr. Sheikh Farid uddin
Ahmed, Associate Professor, Department of
Anaesthesiology ( ICU and Pain Medicine),
Khulna Medical College, Khulna, Bangladesh. (Dr.
Sheikh Farid Sir
01711295957) and Professor Dr. Engineer
Mohiuddin Ahmad, Professor and Dean,
Department of Electrical & Electronic
Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering &
Technology, Khulna-9203.(Mail:
ahmad@eee.kuet.ac.bd)
I think this portable Ventilator would be highly
benificiable both in ICU and Ambulance service
at patients emergency condition in all rural
hospitals where needs a lot of it although patient
trial is’t yet.
We are Working to Develop a Low Cost Portable
Mechanical Ventilator and On this Mechanical
Ventilator device we have an International
research paper linked below my ontroduction
here.
I am Md. Rakibul Islam
a Biomedical Engineer,
have completed my graduation from Khulna
University of Engineering & Technology (KUET) in
2019 at the Department of Biomedical
Engineering
We have a new idea to build “Low cost Portable
Mechanical Ventilator to protect COVID-19
patients.
Even I have completed my Undergraduate thesis
successfully on Developing Low Cost ICU
Mechanical Ventilator.
Title: “Designing and prototyping of an
Electromechanical Ventilator based on double
CAM operation integrated with Telemedicine
application.”
This device we made was absolutely low cost
$100 per one device Totally for prototyping.
On Developing Low Cost MechanicaI Ventilator
for rural hospitals we have one International
publication on Mechanical Ventilator cited by
ELSEVIER ( Available at IEEE explorer) and I am
a Author of this Paper linked here:
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/
8934562
I would like to offer myself as a candidate of this
project and my team also.
Please call me (01521254915, 01753810420) if
you are interested on this prototype that I
described up.
Thanking you in anticipation
Md. Rakibul Islam
Biomedical Engineer ( 1st batch from KUET)
Contract number: +8801521254915
+8801753810420
Gmail: rakibulbme14@gmail.com
Current Location: Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.