Electrical Engineering Insights to Combat Corona Virus Pandemic
Human civilization has been plagued with various deadly pandemics and epidemics throughout history. So, the outbreak of the new disease known as Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 is not new or something unheard. What’s new is how we approach to combat this ongoing pandemic in our time.
Today, science has advanced way more than we could have ever imagined. Research and experimental activities in engineering technology have brought magnificent changes into the perspective of defining problems and their solutions. A question may arise; what do we understand by research? Research is, in general, finding solutions to a particular problem. A piece of paper or an article comes to mind when we hear about ‘research’, but we should remember that it portrays a much larger picture than this.
When we talk about protecting human civilization from a pandemic, we cannot lightly take electrical engineering research. We have to look for more significant margins and impacts that can be created either directly or indirectly through continuous humanitarian welfare attempts. This article entirely focuses on giving its readers an insight into how electrical engineering is actively or passively crucial in combating coronavirus pandemic.
As coronavirus is contagious, it is essential to minimize community transmission as fast as possible. People must go through an extreme level of isolation and maintain social distancing. Experts have predicted that this pandemic is going to last for about 18 months. As like every other virus, corona infected person often shows few general symptoms i.e., mild pain in the throat, cold-like illness, continuous dry cough, or fever. Tracking people with these symptoms can accelerate the process of minimizing the transmission of the virus. Bus stations, railway stations, airports, country borders, shopping malls, and other common public places are considered as the gateways for the virus to transmit from one community to another via infected patients. Electronic Monitoring Device is playing a vital role to identify susceptible COVID-19 infected persons in those areas.
Body temperature has been taken into account as an essential indicator in this regard. A few months ago, I had to pay a visit to Edward M. Kennedy Center, Dhaka. While I was entering through the security portal, a guard stopped me and took my temperature using a non-contact infrared thermometer. It was the first time in my life when I had to face such an experiment. And I was lucky!
A human body keeps emitting infrared (IR) rays; when the body temperature is higher than usual, it releases the excess heat as infrared waves. An electrical thermometer has thermopile constructed in it, which converts the concentrated IR waves into electricity, and then the internal calibration of the detector shows an output after processing. IR wave sensors and laser guns are non-invasive, cost-efficient, portable, and show faster readings than other methods. But it is alleged that these devices cannot detect if the person is corona infected. Dr. James Lawler, a medical expert in the Global Center for Health Security of the University of Nebraska, quoted: ‘Notoriously not accurate and reliable.’
It is clearly understood that coronavirus infection cannot be precisely detected following only a single parameter i.e., body temperature, but this at least indicates the primary tendency.
Back in January 2020, VivaLNK, a healthcare solutions provider, came with continuous temperature sensor applications, which helped China to fight against the COVID-19. Since vast numbers of corona infected patients were hospitalized in the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, there was a possibility of spreading the infection from patients to patients or doctors. VivaLNK’s temperature sensor was applied directly to the quarantined patients, and this allowed the doctors to instantly monitor the real-time change of body temperature. Data collected by the sensor were sent to remote observatory dashboards in medical stations; thus, contacts between patients and doctors were reduced significantly.
Naturally, there are more advanced devices to record temperature such as the Thermal Imaging Camera, which takes a picture of limited heat spots and eventually helps to produce a heat map. It has been reported that China used drones to take thermal images that could cover about 200 people in a minute and it had a margin of error of only 0.5° Celsius.
It is factual that we cannot rely on machine learning or artificial intelligence-based data entirely. We need to realize; there is a fine line between prediction and reality. However, experts can utilize the predicted data to prepare, thus, to take precautions for the future facts. Deep Learning or AI provides more substantial analysis to monitor the spreading across several countries and the corresponding number of confirmed coronavirus cases. Machine Learning calculated even the survival chance of a severely infected patient during the massive outbreak in Italy.
We all have heard about Graphene. It is often considered as magical element among technology enthusiasts, especially electrical engineers. Rumor has it that Graphene industries are trying to develop super sensors that can be used to discover coronavirus infections. Graphenea, a company localized in Spain, has already offered Graphene free-of-cost to diagnostic researchers. Grolltext from the USA has declared that they are producing Graphene-based bio-sensors that may detect different viruses including corona at a single time and which also comes with low-cost advantages.
Can we even imagine the emerging field of robotics without electrical functions? The demand for UV light-emitting disinfection robots has drastically increased across the globe, especially in Asia, North America, and Europe. When Wuhan was facing this pandemic’s wrath, around 2000 UVD robots were sent there to take over the situations in hospitals. Blue Ocean Robotics launched this mobile robot almost a year ago, and viruses like MERS and SARS were effortlessly exterminated. As coronavirus is similar to those, it has been claimed that UVD robots can even help to eradicate COVID-19 by crumbling the structure of viral DNA and RNA. A UVD robot has a set of eight light bulbs that emit UV-C rays. Generally, this type of beam can decimate harmful pathogens and microorganisms.
It has been found that UVD Robot can kill up to 99.99% of bacteria, viruses, and that too within 10 minutes in a hospital cabin room. Moreover, these robots are clinically certified by the Danish Technological Institute, Odense University Hospital, Melbee Microbiology, and few more independent technical and biotech laboratories.
Photoneo, a Slovakia based manufacturer company, has built a robot called ‘Phollower 100’. This robot is specially designed to carry materials that would otherwise need humans. It does not require any floor lines to navigate, making it entirely different from a basic line follower robot. Joysticks can control the real-time movement of this robot. The Phollower 100 is used to carry vaccines, medicines, and other medical instruments in the hospital quarantine zones.
TMiRob Technology is a medical robot developer company located in Shanghai, China. They produce disinfection robots, much like Blue Ocean Robotics, as discussed earlier, but the method of their disinfection makes their robots different from ones in UVD. This medical robot uses a mixture of Chloric Acid and Plasma to disinfect the room environment. A trial of these was executed on-site during the crisis in Wuhan.
Paige Balcom, a Ph. D. student of UC Berkeley, and Peter Okwoko, a Ugandan environmental activist, founded a social enterprise called Takataka Plastics in Gulu, Uganda. ‘Takataka’ is a local terminology that means Waste. They use an electrical extruder machine to ignite heat on the raw materials i.e., shredded plastics. As soon as these materials reach a molten state, these are formed into shapes in accordance with the template. Sometimes pigments are used to create colorful structures. Currently, Takataka Plastics has been producing face shields from recycled plastics. Each of the face shields costs 80 cents only.
When we are discussing protective equipment, we cannot overlook the most vital one: Medical Ventilator. A ventilator is an artificial respirator that keeps patient breathing by continuing respiration, i.e., passing pure oxygen. It is the necessary equipment to save one’s life, as a corona infected patient cannot breathe naturally due to the lungs filling up with fluid. A report by the Centers for Disease Control shows that 40 to 70 percent of critical patients were recovered in China due to having proper ventilation services.
Unfortunately, many countries, even developed ones like the USA, do not have a sufficient number of ventilators available comparing to the increasing number of corona suspected or confirmed cases. Making an efficient ventilator is undoubtedly not an easy task. It requires a continuous source of input energy, turning this input power into an output form of flow and pressure and regulating it accurately with the patient’s pulse rating and real-time analysis to control the opening or closing of the respirator valves.
Without an electric cell or battery input, a ventilator is nominally a life savior. Generally, it takes Alternating Current as input from wall outlets. Still, a DC source is obligatory to run the ventilator in emergencies, i.e. transportation from one hospital to another, movement from one cabin to another, or failure of mainstream power supply. Ventilators also consist of numerous pieces of sensors to mitigate the probability of any technical issues, thus, making them much more sophisticated.
A medical equipment manufacturer, Ventec Life Systems has been developing such kinds of ventilators which have dedicated battery backup, filtration system with microbes, and easy touch panel interface to control the ventilation.
It is a fact that healthcare professionals and volunteers are facing a shortage of protective gear and ventilators, even in countries with adept medical technology. A group of associate professors from UC Berkeley have already started working with experts from UC San Francisco to develop cost-efficient and readily deployable Powered Air-Purified Respirators (PAPR).
Professor Michel Maharbiz from UC Berkeley has already consulted with medical tool manufacturers to assimilate remote controlling feature into the ventilators, so doctors do not need to come in contact. Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems (ISINNOVA) from Italy has collaborated with Decathlon, a French firm, to develop 3D printed adapter aiming to alternate snorkeling musk into the non-invasive ventilator. ISINNOVA has come to achieve the advanced facilities that allow them to produce 3D printed respirator valves within 3 hours, hence, fastening their experimental works. Besides, Prusa Research in Czechia is engaged in manufacturing 3D printed face shields.
In my country, Bangladesh, engineering enthusiasts are doing base research and trying to develop low-cost ventilators with locally available components. Tajbiul Hasan Kabbo, one of my friends pursuing Electrical & Electronic Engineering, is directly involved in developing the ‘Spondon (Heartbeat)’ ventilator. Our daily conversation during late-night has somehow helped me to perceive the depth of dedication that an engineering researcher or innovator nurtures in himself.
We must acknowledge that we are stronger than COVID-19, only if we maintain unity by following restrictions and regulations.
Author:
Abdur Rahman Showrov
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology (AUST), Dhaka
References:
[1] Sarah Yang, Controlling ventilators from a distance Professor Michel Maharbiz is working with medical device makers to allow hospital staff to remotely monitor and adjust patients’ ventilators. California: Berkeley Engineering News, 2020.
[2] Thomas Lee, Turning sleep apnea machines into ventilators: Converting CPAP and BiPAP machines safely could add tens of thousands to COVID-19 ventilator supply. California: Berkeley Engineering News, 2020.
[3] Thomas Lee, Low-cost, readily deployable respirators could help frontline healthcare workers. California: Berkeley Engineering News, 2020.
[4] Robert Sanders, What COVID-19 antibody tests can tell us, and what they can’t. California: Berkeley Engineering News, 2020.
[5] Nnamdi Anyadike, Disinfection Robots Battle COVID-19 Spread. Poole: Electropages Blog, 2020.
[6] Adam Cooper, Coronavirus: why we need to consult engineers as well as scientists for solutions. Parkville: The Conversation, 2020.
[7] David Yaffe-Bellany, ‘Thermometer Guns’ on Coronavirus Front Lines Are ‘Notoriously Not Accurate’. New York: The New York Times, 2020.
[8] Dean Koh, Combating the spread of coronavirus in China through continuous temperature monitoring. Portland: Mobi Health News, 2020.
[9] Chris Young, 11 Ways Engineers Are Helping out to Fight Against the Pandemic. San Francisco: Interesting Engineering, 2020.
[10] Davide Sher, Issinova shares 3D printed adapter to turn snorkeling mask into a non-invasive ventilator. Surrey: 3D Printing Media Network, 2020.
[11] Jannatul Islam, Spondon helps artificial breathing. Dhaka: The Daily Sun, 2020.
