You don’t have to wire this to the ignition or anything — all you have to do is power it with the cigarette lighter (or straight-up outlet, if you’re lucky). Every time you turn the key, this pump powers up and performs a little song to remind you to use it. Electronically speaking, it couldn’t be simpler — an Arduino UNO reads your hand from the distance sensor and activates a servo that dispenses three short pumps of isopropyl alcohol. Check it out in action after the break.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we interact with people, things, and the world around us. A few months ago, we launched the Touch Less, Do More Challenge, calling on our community to build solutions based on Arduino Nano or MKR boards to enforce social distancing or enable touch-free technologies.
More than 1,000 participants submitted solutions to the contest in hopes of winning tens of thousands of dollars in prizes, including hardware from Newark, Dragon Innovation product assessment, and Hackster marketing support.
The judging panel — composed by Massimo Banzi (Arduino Co-Founder), Nishant Nishant (Avnet VP & Global Head of Digital), Benedetta Piantella (Design Researcher and Professor at NYU), Alessandro Ranellucci (Arduino Chief of Open Source Community) and Alex Glow (IoT Media at Hackster) — selected the best projects. Without further ado, here are your winners…
Buttons can be found everywhere from light switches and pedestrian crossings to elevators and kiosks. These buttons, however, can also be a catalyst in the spread of viruses. This led Swapnil Verma to come up with a gesture and IoT-based touchless interface that provides a simple, intuitive, and most of all, germ-free way of interacting with the digital world.
Jean Perardel‘s Grumpy Hedgehog is a MKR WiFi 1010-controlled gadget that, thanks to an LCD screen, allows users to read and communicate through hand signs and movements. With GrumpyHedgehog, anyone can operate a send keyboard commands to a computer, track the number of patrons in a store on a smartphone, relay encrypted information to a server, turn on the lights, and much more.
15-year-old Dhruv Sheth has impressively designed an intelligent system comprised of six solutions that automate commonly used devices throughout homes and in public to prevent COVID-19 transmission. These solutions — which are built upon the MKR WiFi 1010 and Nano 33 BLE Sense — include a smart intercom, a temperature monitor, a voice-controlled elevator, a mask detector, a queue management system, and a sanitization system.
draakje156‘s Nano-powered robot easily sits on a desk, cash register, or elsewhere to measure the distance between itself and any approaching person, emitting a light and sound alarm if someone comes within six feet.
Ever wish you could know how crowded a shop was before entering? With this in mind, Ian Mercer created low-cost storefront indicator to help at-risk individuals decide whether it’s a good time to go in or best to wait until later by tracking cell phone BLE traffic via a MKR WiFi 1010.
Some of us are oblivious to how often we touch our faces. The current finding is we reach for our eyes, nose, or mouth every three to four minutes. Twenty times per hour is an awful lot of poking, picking, itching, and prodding when we’re supposed to keep our hands away from glands that can transmit and receive disease. To curb this habit and enter the 2020 Hackaday Prize, [Lloyd lobo] built a proof-of-concept device that sounds the alarm when you reach for your face.
We see an Arduino Uno connected to the classic HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor, an LED, and we have to assume a USB battery pack. [Lloyd] recommends the smaller Nano, we might reach for the postage-stamp models and swap the ultrasonic module out for the much smaller laser time of flight sensor. At its soul, this is an intruder alarm. Instead of keeping siblings out of your room, you will be keeping your hands out of the area below the bill of the hat where the sensor is mounted. If you regularly lift a coffee cup to your lips, it might chastise you, and if you chew sunflower seeds, you might establish a tempo. *crunch* *chip* *beep* *crunch* *chip* *beep*
This article was written by César Garcia, researcher at La Hora Maker.
This week, we will be exploring the Apollo Ventilator in detail! This project emerged at Makespace Madrid two months ago. It was a response to the first news about the expected lack of ventilators in Spain because of COVID-19.
Several members of the space decided to explore this problem. They joined Telegram groups and started participating in the coronavirus maker forum. In this group, they stumbled upon an initial design shared by a doctor, that would serve as a starting point for the ventilator project.
Credits: Apollo Ventilator (Photo by Apollo Ventilator Team)
To advance the project, a small but active group would join daily at “Makespace Virtual.” This virtual space used open-source video conferencing software Jitsi. Each one of the eight core members would contribute with their expertise in design, engineering, coding, etc. Due to the confinement measures in place, access to the space was quite limited. Everyone decided to work from home and a single person would merge all advances at the make space physically. A few weeks later doctors from La Paz Hospital in Madrid got in touch with the Apollo team, looking for ways to work together on the ventilator.
One of the hardest challenges to overcome was the lack of medical materials. The global demand has disrupted supply chains everywhere! The team had to improvise with the means at their disposal. To regulate the flow of gases, they created a 3D-printed pinch, that would collapse a medical-grade silicone tube in the input. This mechanism is controlled using the same electronics used in 3D printers: an Arduino Mega 2560 board with a RAMPS shield!
Credits: 3D-printed valve pinch (Photo by Apollo Ventilator Team)
In respect of sensors, they decided to go for certified versions that could be sterilized in an autoclave. They looked everywhere without success. A few days later, they got support from a large electronics supplier to provide them an equivalent model suited for children or adults up to 80 kg.
They decided to work on a shared repository to coordinate all the distributed efforts. This attracted new members and talents, doubling in size and sparking new lines of development. The Apollo Ventilator is an open-source project, meaning that new people can learn and create together new features.
Based on their expertise sourcing components, they wanted Apollo to be flexible. Most other certified ventilators are too specific. But they want to become “the Marlin for ventilators!” Marlin is one of the most used firmware in the world to control 3D printers. This software can manage all kinds of boards and adapt to different configurations easily.
In the case of the Apollo Ventilator, the initial setup runs on a single Arduino Mega board. It uses the attached computer as the display. Current code can be configured to use a secondary Arduino board connected by serial port as a display too. As for the interface, there are several alternatives using GTK and QT. It’s also possible to send this data using MQTT, so data from many ventilators can be centralized. Other alternative builds used even regular snorkeling pieces! The Apollo Ventilator aspires to serve as the basis for several new projects and initiatives where off the shelf solutions are not available. Another potential outcome would be low-cost ventilators for veterinary practice or education.
Credits: Apollo Ventilator made out of snorkeling equipment (Photo by Apollo Ventilator Team)
The Apollo Ventilator is currently under development. They plan to expand the tests on lung simulators right now. Next steps would involve working with hospitals and veterinary schools. They will tackle these phases once the medical services are less overwhelmed.
The Apollo Ventilator takes its name from the famous Apollo missions to the moon. They managed to overcome all obstacles to take us where humanity had not been before. This project shares the same goals in regards to open-source ventilators. They are trying to overcome one of the biggest contemporary challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic.
To learn more about the Apollo Ventilator, you can check out its repository. At this link you can also find an interview (in Spanish) to Javi, Apollo Ventilator’s project leader.
If you’d like to know more about Makespace Madrid, visit their website.
Arduino staff and Arduino community are strongly committed to support projects aimed at fighting and lessening the impact of COVID-19. Arduino products are essential for both R&D and manufacturing purposes related to the global response to Covid-19, in building digital medical devices and manufacturing processes for medical equipment and PPE. However, all prototypes and projects aimed to fight COVID-19 using Arduino open-source electronics and digital fabrication do not create any liability to Arduino (company, community and Arduino staff members). Neither Arduino nor Arduino board, staff members and community will be responsible in any form and to any extent for losses or damages of whatever nature (direct, indirect, consequential, or other) which may arise related to Arduino prototypes, Arduino electronic equipment for critical medical devices, research operations, forum and blog discussions and in general Covid-19 Arduino-based pilot and non pilot projects, independently of the Arduino control on progress or involvement in the research, development, manufacturing and in general implementation phases.
Combating COVID-19 Conference: A Collaborative Arduino Community Initiative to take place on April 2nd at 5pm CET
Humanity is facing one of the most trying events in its history and as technologists, makers and designers we are asking ourselves how can we help.
How can we contribute to the efforts to save lives, to help our fellow human beings?
All of us have been thinking about this and observing what was going on in the world.
We have seen communities, including the Arduino community, trying to design devices that would help hospitals cope with the lack of equipment; we’ve seen people firing up their imagination and their 3d printers in an effort to build something that could save even a single human life.
Having noticed that a large number of these efforts are using Arduino technology we reached out to a number of these communities to offer our help, donate some hardware, provide engineering support and do whatever we can considering that we are a small company.
One thing that was striking to us is the large amount of duplication in the work people are doing – many people are spending valuable time trying to overcome similar challenges in their design, rather than sharing their solution to the benefit of all and moving on to the next hurdle. Also that there are different teams with different strengths and skill sets that would be better working together than apart.
We must do better, be more effective, work together and merge efforts to solve these problems and reach our common goal quicker and more efficiently.
Because of all of this we want to invite as many of these projects as possible to an online gathering, to get people talking, to offer help on how to design and make hardware, how to think about the software, and how to scale manufacturing (we would like to share our knowledge in making tens of thousands of open source boards per week). Finally and most importantly we must take guidance from medical professionals so that they can steer requirements and validate the designs so our efforts have the most positive impact.
Join us online on April, 2nd to understand how we can work together to do better together, and Together – Let’s Make Covid-19 History
David Cuartielles, Massimo Banzi co-founders of Arduino (on behalf of Arduino)
Combating COVID-19 Conference: A Collaborative Arduino Community Initiative will take place on April 2nd at 17.00 CET.
This is an open invitation to anyone currently using Arduino compatible devices within a project to design and manufacture ventilators, respirators or other devices to combat COVID-19. Be you a doctor, an academic, a professional company/researcher or an innovator you are more than welcome to join the conference.
The conference will be hosted in Zoom (link available soon), with the ability to interact with Arduino and other members on the conference via Discord (free download here).
There are different ways to participate in the conference; you can present your Arduino based project to combat COVID-19, support other community projects or provide expert advice – we are all stronger together.
(N.B. if you want to present and share your project, please complete this form by 12.00 (noon) CET on April 2nd)
More information on the conference will be available soon, in the meantime you can learn more about Arduino’s overall response to COVID-19 emergency here.
We once saw a Romeo and Juliet production where the two families were modern-day mob families with 3-piece suits and pistols. If they made King Richard III set in this week, the famous line might be: “Hand sanitizer, hand sanitizer, my kingdom for hand sanitizer!” Even if you have a supply stashed in your prepper cache, you have to touch the bottle so you could cross-contaminate with other users. Public places often have automatic dispensers to combat this, and now you can too. [Just Barran] shows the device in a video, you can see below.
Sourcing parts for projects is sometimes a problem, but right now we are betting the hand sanitizer will be the hardest component. Of course, the Internet is ripe with homemade brews that may or may not be effective based on beer, grain alcohol, or a variety of other base materials.
[Barran] has a big junk box. so he snagged an Arduino and an ultrasonic sensor. The part that is a little tricky is pulling down the pump. The basic idea is to use a servo motor to pull some fishing line. To engage the bottle, there is a small bit of plastic from a notebook cover and the fishing line goes to both sides of it. One side of the fishing line is fixed and the other is what the servo pulls.
We might have used a solenoid to push the button, but we like the servo method for its simplicity. In the end, it does look like it works well. Changing the bottle out probably requires a little surgery since there is a screw holding the plastic bracket in and you might have to update the fishing line lengths. That might be an impediment for a commercial project, but for your own use, it doesn’t seem like it would be a problem.
Fishing line is more useful than you might think. We’ve even seen it used as belts in 3D printers.
In many parts of the world the COVID-19 pandemic is causing shortages in hospital space, staff, medical supplies, and equipment. Severe cases may require breathing support, but there are only so many ventilators available. With that in mind, MIT is working on FDA approval of an emergency ventilator system (E-Vent). They have submitted the design to the FDA for fast track review. The project is open source, so once they have approval the team will release all the data needed to replicate it.
The design is actually made simple by using something that is very common: a manual resuscitator. You have doubtlessly seen these on your favorite medical show. It is the bag someone squeezes while the main character struggles valiantly to save their patient. Of course, having someone sit and squeeze the bag for days on end for thousands of people isn’t very practical and that’s where they’ve included an Arduino-controlled motor to automate the process.
The tricky thing is that, forcing air into your lungs isn’t always good for them. Even healthy lungs can be stressed by too much inflation and people who already have lung problems may be able to handle only a tenth of what a healthy set can manage. That’s why the device needs a closed loop control system that monitors pressure from the patient and modifies the flow.
Any solution should be utilized only in a healthcare setting with direct monitoring by a clinical professional. While it cannot replace an FDA-approved ICU ventilator, in terms of functionality, flexibility, and clinical efficacy, the MIT E-Vent is anticipated to have utility in helping free up existing supply or in life-or-death situations when there is no other option.
Further, any low-cost ventilator system must take great care regarding providing clinicians with the ability to closely control and monitor tidal volume, inspiratory pressure, bpm, and I/E ratio, and be able to provide additional support in the form of PEEP, PIP monitoring, filtration, and adaptation to individual patient parameters. We recognize, and would like to highlight for anyone seeking to manufacture a low-cost emergency ventilator, that failing to properly consider these factors can result in serious long-term injury or death.
This isn’t a unique idea, and the MIT team provides links to other similar projects. The team’s work is not totally online yet, because they are still testing. For example, the acrylic apparatus that squeezes the bag may not hold up to the repetitive stress very well. The team may look to other projects that predated the crisis. For example, have a look at the AIR device presented at a conference last year in the video below. There’s also this interesting document from a Johns Hopkins resident.
Almost as interesting as the device itself is the comments people are leaving about the design. It is a great example of how the Internet opens up totally new ways to collaborate on a critical problem like this one.
Planet Arduino is, or at the moment is wishing to become, an aggregation of public weblogs from around the world written by people who develop, play, think on Arduino platform and his son. The opinions expressed in those weblogs and hence this aggregation are those of the original authors. Entries on this page are owned by their authors. We do not edit, endorse or vouch for the contents of individual posts. For more information about Arduino please visit www.arduino.cc
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