S. Vishnu Sharma
Research team at IIT Mandi brought out two low-cost ventilators. The developed prototypes are easy to use and can be taken to remote locations in case of a medical emergency.
While one ventilator developed by Research team at IIT Mandi is a ‘Wi-fi Operated smart ventilator’ the other is a ‘Low-cost Mechanical Ventilator.’
Research team at IIT Mandi 2020
Wi-Fi Operated Smart Ventilator
Research team at IIT Mandi that developed this ventilator comprised Dr. Apran Gupta, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi, along with research scholars, Mr. Lokendra Singh and Mr. Sourabh Dogra, have developed a smart ventilator costing only Rs 4,000.
The developed prototype is a mechanised Artificial Manual Breathing Unit (AMBU) bag with options to control breath rate and volume of air going into the patient’s lungs.
The unique feature of this product developed by Research team at IIT Mandi is that apart from manual operation, it can be controlled by a mobile application over wifi as well.
For the same, the smartphone application, ‘IIT Mandi Ventilator’ has been developed at IIT Mandi. This mobile application can start-stop the ventilator and change the Breath/ Minute (BPM) rate.
The designed prototype uses a slider-crank mechanism to pump air and is easy to manufacture, assemble and operate.
Speaking about this product developed by Research team at IIT Mandi Dr. Arpan Gupta said it is designed especially for COVID-19 pandemic, this low-cost ventilator can be operated manually as well as using a smartphone app connected over Wifi.
This product developed by Research team at IIT Mandi can offer some protection to medical staff, who can operate the ventilator remotely, he said.
There is also an emergency switch on the ventilator and the mobile application that stops the ventilator and alarms in case of any malfunction.
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The ventilator developed by Research team at IIT Mandi can be directly operated with an AC supply or from an external battery.
The present ventilator is for non-critical patients who need some help in respiration. The prototype was developed in consultation with a medical team consisting of Dr. Chander Singh, Medical Officer, IIT Mandi and Dr. Manjul Sharma and Dr. Jasdeep from Jagriti Hospital, Mandi.
Low cost Mechanical Ventilator
Research team at IIT-Mandi under the aegis of Dr. Rajeev Kumar, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, IIT Mandi has developed a mechanical ventilator by using a low-cost self-inflating bag operated by an electric motor costing under Rs. 25,000.
The Research team at IIT Mandi has used the motor generally used in an electric ventilator along with the Artificial Manual Breathing Unit (AMBU) bag or self-inflation bag to achieve the goal.
In this ventilator, a single rack and pinion mechanism has been used in which the self-inflatable bag is compressed from one side that would blow the oxygen into the patient’s lungs either through invasive or noninvasive mode.
This ventilator developed by Research team at IIT Mandi has an interface between the ventilator to the patient and the ventilator to the operator.
Speaking about the innovation brought out by their Research team at IIT Mandi Dr. Rajeev Kumar said in this time of COVID-19 pandemic, this low-cost ventilator will be very useful especially for the rural patients because of its portability.
Along with this, the ventilator is portable and has user-specified Breath/Minute (BPM), tidal volume and exhale-inhale time ratio facility.
It also has a display of settings and status and alarms for high airway pressure. Such features are usually found in the ventilators which are much costlier than the developed prototype.
About – IIT Mandi
Since the first batch of 97 students joined in July 2009, IIT Mandi has grown to currently host 125 faculty and 1,655 students who are enrolled in various programmes of studies in undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes, and 1,141 alumni.
IIT Mandi is a fully residential campus with 1.4 lakh sq. m. buildings completed. It has a guest house with 88 rooms, an 750-seater Auditorium, campus school, sports complex and hospital.
IIT Mandi has four Academic Schools and three major Research Centers. The Schools are: School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, School of Basic Sciences, School of Engineering, and School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
The Centers are: Advanced Materials Research Centre (AMRC, set up with an investment of Rs. 60 crore), Centre for Design and Fabrication of Electrical Devices (C4DFED; has Rs. 50 crore worth of fabrication tools), and BioX Centre (has acquired research equipment worth Rs. 15 crore).
In 2017, the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, selected IIT Mandi to lead the prestigious Rs. 10 crore FarmerZone Project.
To cater to the growing and changing needs of Indian industry and the aspirations of students, IIT Mandi has introduced 7 B.Tech., 7 M.Tech., 5 M.Sc., 4 Ph.D., 1 I-Ph.D and 1 M.A programmes in the past 10 years.
The unique, project-oriented B.Tech. curriculum is centered around its 4-year long Design and Innovation stream. From August 2019, IIT Mandi started 3 new and unique B. Tech. programmes in Data Science and Engineering, Engineering Physics, and Dual Degree in Bioengineering.
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Since the inception of the Institute, IIT Mandi faculty have been involved in over 275 Research and Development (R&D) projects worth more than Rs. 120 crore. In the past 10 years, the Institute has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with as many as 11 international and 12 national universities.
IIT Mandi Catalyst, first Technology Business Incubator in Himachal Pradesh, has helped over 75 startups since 2017 and is changing both the industry profile and entrepreneurial mindset in the state.
So far, Catalyst has secured external funding of Rs. 24 crore from various funding agencies. Enabling Women of Kamand Valley (EWOK) is another innovative programme run by IIT Mandi, which focuses on imparting skills training to rural women to enable them to start village-scale businesses.
IIT Mandi has been ranked No. 20 in the Engineering Institutions Category in the India Rankings 2019 released by National Institutional Ranking Framework, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India. In the Outreach and Inclusivity metric of NIRF, IIT Mandi is 1st among all 23 IITs.