A UT Graduate's Dissertation on "Designing and Manufacturing an Emergency Pulmotor" was Selected as the Top Dissertation in 2020

The dissertation, by Medi Robati and Hamid Naseri, was titled "Designing and Manufacturing an Emergency Pulmotor" and the supervisors were Dr. Ali Seddighi and Dr. Mohammad Ali Nazari. 

Severe lack of pulmotors during the Corona pandemic in 2020 led researchers and engineers to discovery of new ideas in order to design and manufacture a simple, inexpensive, reliable and accessible pulmotor. Bag Valve Mask (BVM) or Ambu-Bag is self-inflating bag made of silicon which is used to provide positive pressure ventilation in the process of artificial respiration or resuscitation. There are numerous Ambu-Bags in various sections of hospitals which are used in certain conditions and the nurses employ them for manual resuscitation. Automation of this process seems to be the right strategy to solve the issue even though safe and appropriate execution of such a procedure in not an easy task. 

In this dissertation, a pulmotor, which operates according to the provided manual, is designed and manufactured. The flow and pressure of exhaust air from an Ambu-Bag is measured by a flowmeter and a barometer and the result is sent to a Micro-Controller. The Micro-Controller determines speed of the stepper motor using the acquired data and controller algorithm. The mechanical output of the stepper motor rotates two handles of the machine after two stages of speed reduction using mechanisms of timing belt and pulley.