Geographical Dependence of Open Hardware Optimization: Case Study of Solar Photovoltaic Racking

Open-source technological development is well-known for rapid innovation and providing opportunities to reduce costs and thus increase accessibility for a wide range of products. This is done through distributed manufacturing, in which products are produced close to end users. There is anecdotal evidence that these opportunities are heavily geographically dependent, with some locations unable to acquire components to build open hardware at accessible prices because of trade restrictions, tariffs, taxes, or market availability. Supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this and forced designers to pivot towards a la carte-style design frameworks for critical system components. To further develop this phenomenon, a case study of free and open-source solar photovoltaic (PV) racking systems is provided. Two similar open-source designs made from different materials are compared in terms of capital costs for their detailed bill of materials throughout ten locations in North, Central and South America. The differences in economic optimization showed that the costs of wood-based racks were superior in North America and in some South American countries, while metal was less costly in Central and South America. The results make it clear that open hardware designs would be best to allow for local optimization based on material availability in all designs. © 2023 by the authors.

A Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (Lamp)-Based Point-of-Care System for Rapid on-Site Clinical Detection of Sars-Cov-2 Viruses

In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, sensitive and rapid on-site detection of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has been one of crucial objectives. A point-of-care (PoC) device called PATHPOD for quick, on-site detection of SARS-CoV-2 employing a real-time reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-rLAMP) reaction on a polymer cartridge. The PATHPOD consists of a standalone device (weighing under 1.2 kg) and a cartridge, and can identify 10 distinct samples and 2 controls in less than 50 minutes. The PATHPOD PoC system is fabricated and clinically validated for the first time in this work © 2023 IEEE.

Platform for hands-on remote labs based on the ESP32 and NOD-red.

Not only in Morocco, throughout the walks of the world covid 19 pandemics has seriously questioned policymakers from different sectors. Think-tank in the educational sector notably higher education addressed by such a wide range of challenges brought about by covid 19. The characteristic concern that educationalists in Moroccan universities have to reconsider in this pandemic period should not be beyond rethinking new pedagogical alternatives including approaches, methods, techniques and didactic materials which can successfully assist practioners of the teaching and learning process to keep up with the current alterations. Practical work (PW) is an indispensable type of teaching in scientific and technical training and meets a real complementary need through real, remote or virtual laboratories. Students can consolidate what they have learnt and develop analytical skills by comparing experimental results with those obtained during the manipulation. In this context, the Laboratory of Engineering Sciences and Energy Management (LASIME) at the Superior School of Technology of Agadir has developed a low-cost platform called LABERSIME installed in the cloud (LMS, IDE) and equipped with an embedded system to drive real laboratory equipment and perform experiments qualitatively more efficient than those in face-to-face mode. The ultimate goal is to stimulate self-learning motivation in students through a creative approach.

Real-Time Estimation of Alternative Stress Index for Low-Cost, Mechanical Ventilators for Emergency Use

Stress index is a useful indicator in mechanical ventilation to assess improper ventilation settings. It can indicate tidal overdistension or tidal recruitment, which are two major mechanisms of ventilator-induced lung injury. However, it's implementation require dedicated hardware and software and is not a widespread parameter used in commercial ventilators. In this work, an alternative, simple way to visually inspect the concavity of the pressure-time curve during mechanical ventilation is presented, by calculating the pressure difference of the pressure-time curve. This proves useful when implemented in low-cost emergency devices, such as those designed to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, because of the reduced computational load required to perform its calculation. The method was implemented in a low-cost emergency mechanical ventilator and tested with an artificial lung for a proof-of-concept. Results show that this alternative method can be effectively used to qualitatively assess the concavity of the pressure-time curve.

Rapidly developable low cost and power-efficient portable turbine-based emergency ventilator

The use of ventilators has always been common in medical scenarios but very expensive to procure or develop. One of the main reasons for these is the components that are being used are expensive and require precise instrumentation, research and development. This paper attempts to mitigate that problem by proposing a novel way to rapidly develop a portable ventilator that uses common 3D printing technology and off-the-shelf components. This turbine and valve-based ventilator feature most of the modes that are commonly used by healthcare professionals. A unique servo-based pressure release mechanism has been designed that makes the system around 36 times more efficient than solenoid-based systems. Reliability and efficiency have been increased further through the use of a novel positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) valve that does not contain any electromechanical component. Effective algorithms such as feed-forward and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers were used alongside the unique ĝ€Sensor data filtration methodology'. The system also provides an interactive graphical user interface (GUI) via an android application that can be installed on any readily found tabs while the firmware manages the breathing detection algorithm using a flow meter. This modular and portable ventilator also features a swappable battery and holds the ability to run on solar power. This energy-efficient and low noise system can run for 5 to 6 hours at a stretch without needing to be connected with the main's supply. This ventilator's design and development files have been certified by open-source hardware association (OSHWA): https://certification.oshwa.org/bd000001.html © 2021 ACM.

Open ventilator evaluation framework: A synthesized database of regulatory requirements and technical standards for emergency use ventilators from Australia, Canada, UK, and US.

Development of emergency use ventilators has attracted significant attention and resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. To facilitate mass collaboration and accelerate progress, many groups have adopted open-source development models, inspired by the long history of open-source development in software. According to the Open-source Hardware Association (OSHWA), Open-source Hardware (OSH) is a term for tangible artifacts - machines, devices, or other physical things - whose design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can make, modify, and use them. One major obstacle to translating the growing body of work on open-source ventilators into clinical practice is compliance with regulations and conformance with mandated technical standards for effective performance and device safety. This is exacerbated by the inherent complexity of the regulatory process, which is tailored to traditional centralized development models, as well as the rapid changes and alternative pathways that have emerged during the pandemic. As a step in addressing this challenge, this paper provides developers, evaluators, and potential users of emergency ventilators with the first iteration of a pragmatic, open-source assessment framework that incorporates existing regulatory guidelines from Australia, Canada, UK and USA. We also provide an example evaluation for one open-source emergency ventilator design. The evaluation process has been divided into three levels: 1. Adequacy of open-source project documentation; 2. Clinical performance requirements, and 3. Conformance with technical standards.

A Remote Control System for Emergency Ventilators During SARS-CoV-2.

As COVID-19 began to grip healthcare systems worldwide, worst-case models predicted huge demands for ventilators. The global community sprang to action, producing a large number of emergency "makeshift" ventilator designs. This brought about another problem: a gap between the quantity of new mechanical ventilators and the number of skilled physicians to operate them. New physicians could not complete training at the pace of ventilator production, which threatened to leave patients sitting untreated, next to unusable ventilators. To address this challenge, we developed a universal remote control system for makeshift ventilators that uses low-cost hardware add-on modules to connect to different ventilators, and a three-tier control architecture to interface the ventilators with telemedicine software. We demonstrate system integration with two representative ventilator designs, adding a remote control option that allows caregivers to quickly and easily monitor and control these ventilators remotely.

Covid-19 Response From Global Makers: The Careables Cases of Global Design and Local Production.

Makerspaces-informal shared spaces that offer access to technologies, resources and a community of peer learners for making-across the globe initiated a rapid response to the lack of medical hardware supplies during the global pandemic outbreak in early 2020 caused by the Corona virus (COVID-19). As our health systems faced unexperienced pressure, being close to collapsing in some countries, and global supply chains failing to react immediately, makers started to prototype, locally produce and globally share designs of Open Source healthcare products, such as face shields and other medical supplies. Local collaboration with hospitals and healthcare professionals were established. These bottom-up initiatives from maker networks across the globe are showing us how responsible innovation is happening outside the constraints of profit-driven large industries. In this qualitative study we present five cases from a global network of makers that contributed to the production of personal protective equipment (PPE) and healthcare-related products. We draw our cases from the experiences made in Careables, a mixed community of people and organizations committed to the co-design and making of open, personalized healthcare for everyone. With the presented cases we reflect on the potential implications for post-pandemic local production of healthcare products and analyze them from a social innovation perspective. These global experiences are valuable indications of transformative innovations that can reduce dependencies from international supply chains and mainstream mass production.

Can Open Source Hardware Mechanical Ventilator (OSH-MVs) initiatives help cope with the COVID-19 health crisis? Taxonomy and state of the art.

The field of Open Source Hardware Mechanical Ventilators (OSH-MVs) has seen a steep rise of contributions during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. As predictions showed that the number of patients would exceed current supply of hospital-grade ventilators, a number of formal (academia, the industry and governments) and informal (fablabs and startups) entities raced to develop cheap, easy-to-fabricate mechanical ventilators. The presence of actors with very diverse modus operandi as well as the speed at which the field has grown, led to a fragmented design space characterized by a lack of clear design patterns, projects not meeting the minimum functional requirements or showing little-to-no innovation; but also valid alternatives to hospital-grade devices. In this paper we provide a taxonomic system to help researchers with no background in biomedical engineering to read, understand and contribute to the OSH-MV field. The taxonomy is composed of ten properties that are read through the lenses of three reflection criteria: buildability, adoptability and scalability. We applied the taxonomy to the analysis of seventeen OSH-MV projects, which are representative of the current landscape of possibilities available for COVID-19 patients. We discuss the different design choices adopted by each project highlighting strengths and weaknesses and we suggest possible directions for the development of the OSH-MV field.