As part of its initiatives to answer urgent needs in the COVID-19 pandemic, Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE Lab supported the Indian startup Inali in the rapid development of a safe, affordable “smart ventilator” that could be quickly manufactured and deployed for emergency use. The development took less than eight days.
Inali, a non-profit organization creating assistive healthcare products, designed and developed the smart ventilator using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and a collaborative approach with designers and healthcare professionals from the lab’s OPEN COVID-19 online community, as well as with engineering mentors from the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in India.
Using cloud-based digital applications, Inali engaged with this community of experts and innovators in real time – no matter their location – leveraging collective intelligence to rapidly design a 3D model of the smart ventilator, engineer it, simulate its function, and manufacture and validate a prototype. The smart ventilator was designed to identify performance metrics for parameters such as air velocity and air pressure that are needed to function, and adjust its operating parameters accordingly, as well as to identify the appropriate oxygen level for an individual patient and the safety metrics required for reliable and safe use.
Ventilators play a key role in treating patients suffering from COVID-19. As the number of cases rise, India risks running short of ventilators and the imported parts needed to manufacture them. Inali’s smart ventilator was designed to be manufactured locally and quickly with readily available parts, to help meet demand by hospitals and government agencies cost-effectively. Inali will publish the complete smart ventilator design and manufacturing details as open source information that can be downloaded by anyone to manufacture in their area.
The 3DEXPERIENCE Lab is an open innovation laboratory and startup accelerator program dedicated to nurturing and empowering disruptive projects and transforming society.