Tezpur University students design IoT based portable ventilator to fight Covid-19 – Times of India

As shortage of ventilators have been haunting the country since breakout of the Covid crisis, the electrical engineering department of TU has undertaken an initiative to design a portable ventilator- an essential instrument for patients who are unable to sustain the level of ventilatory necessary to maintain the gas exchange functions.

“The purpose of the project was to design a portable mechanical ventilator by automating the operation of ‘Ambu Bag‘ with volume control ventilation which can be used in respiratory failure”, said Prof. Soumik Roy, head of the electrical engineering department at TU, who supervised the project. An “Ambu Bag” is a hand-held device commonly used to provide positive pressure ventilation to patients who are not breathing adequately or have been facing severe problems in breathing.

He informed that another important objective of the project is to implement IoT based features like monitoring of patient activity and controlling parameters of the ventilator through an App. “The prototype designed is sufficiently economic and by using IoT as a remote controlling feature, one can control and monitor the ventilatory parameters through devices like mobile phones, tabs and computers,” said Prof. Roy, adding that it will prevent both the clinicians and the doctors from getting infected from airborne transmission. The machine is cost effective and would be available at an affordable price costing between Rs 8,000-15,000, depending on the features of the machine, a TU spokesperson said.

The group of electrical engineering students comprising- Bihung Muchahary, Aniket Raj, Manish Kumar and Ankita Das are working in the project under the guidance of Chiranjit Adhikary, ex-guest faculty of electrical engineering department and Firdausa Ahmed, guest faculty member of the department of electrical engineering.

The initiative was part of a project, awarded as the ‘Best Innovative Engineering Idea’ under the banner of Prof. Aparna Kumar Padmapati Annual Scholarship from Assam Engineering College (AEC) Class 88 Foundation for the year 2020-21. The alumni of Assam Engineering College who passed out in 1988, popularly known as AEC Class 88 Foundation.