Mechanical Ventilator

The motivation for constructing this kind of ventilator comes from the worldwide shortage of mechanical ventilators for treating COVID-19 patients—the COVID-19 pandemic has been striking hard in some regions, especially the deprived ones. Constructing a low-cost, open-source mechanical ventilator aims to mitigate the effects of this shortage on those regions. The equipment documented here employs commercial spare parts only.

The method considers pressure measurements from the inspiratory limb and alerts clinicians in real-time whether the patient is under a healthy or unhealthy situation.

An Arduino board collects data from the pressure sensor and sends them to the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi commands the actuator, and its shaft compresses the resuscitator bag accordingly.

The system depends on the signals I:E, Vt, and FR, provided by the clinician. The device adjusts the airflow to the patient’s lungs accordingly.