Respir-Rat

Engineering Capstone Project

Dates: September 2017 – April 2018

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Groups involved: An Engineering Major Capstone Project, partnership with NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health). Part of Team with Eric Wirth and Alfred Rwagaju

NIOSH - https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/index.htm

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Background: 

Rats are similar anatomically to humans, and often used for pulmonary research. However, rats have many different breathing patterns depending on whether a mouse in asleep, scared, sniffing, or adjusting to a new environment. As rats are moving creatures, this can create a large amount of noise and variation an respiration data when collected by a device. NIOSH exposes rats to common particles and possible workplace hazards to determine the effects on respiratory health.

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Project Details:

We are creating a robotic rodent that mimics the respiration function of a rat that fits within a non-invasive breathing measurement apparatus called a unrestrained Whole-Body Plethysmograph (uWBP). The device will be used to calibrate and test for errors in the WBP as well as start to create a new research standard for rat respiration.

The robotic rodent mimics a rat's inflow/outflow volume, airway restriction, and frequency of breathing through movement of a servo motor. The pneumatic actuator acts as the "lungs" of the rat. The device is programmed using a Teensy 3.2, which is an Arduino compatible board.

 The first semester setup the framework of the design, and second semester created and iterated to have a working design.