Industrial and Goverment
The Project of Machine Tools Industry Development Center (MTIDC) in Indonesia with CAMTIC Advanced Mechatronics Institute for Commercialization.
University
This project aims to establish a close collaboration and a knowledge transfer between Imperial College London (IC) and Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) in the field of affordable medical devices based on soft robotics.
As part of this broader aim, our immediate goal is the development of new soft robotic solutions to facilitate endotracheal intubation. Endotracheal intubation is one of the most common emergency procedures worldwide. It is performed for patients requiring mechanical ventilation due to trauma or to acute respiratory infections (e.g. from COVID-19). However, it is risky and it requires experienced clinicians. Existing instruments for intubation are mostly passive and consequently difficult to operate. Their misuse could result in accidental intubation of the oesophagus leading to asphyxia and death of the patient.
Infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, also increase the risk of cross-infection for the healthcare workers in direct contact with patients. Therefore, level III personal protective equipment must be worn during the intubation of COVID-19 patients. This limits the movements of the clinicians and increases the difficulty of the intubation procedure. Indonesia has a population of over 250 million distributed over more than 13,000 islands. The limited access to healthcare in many regions and the high incidence of respiratory infections further aggravates the risks associated with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.
Based on our design of a soft robotic manipulator patented by IC, we aim to develop a soft robotic intubation tool that is affordable and can be made disposable. Successful completion of this collaboration will help to provide essential care to an increasing part of the Indonesian population throughout the country in an affordable fashion. In the longer term, we anticipate that the proposed soft robotic intubation system will result in a system suitable for non-expert use, to be developed locally at ITB.