Mechatronic Design and Robust Control of an Artificial Ventilator in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has generated an adverse situation in which thousands of people dies due to the lack of artificial ventilation devices. In this sense, this work presents a proposal for the robust mechatronic design and control of a low-cost non-invasive ventilator, for which rapid prototyping manufacture strategies such as 3D printing and product design are used. In order to guarantee the reliability of the system operation, in this work, a robust control scheme based on super-twisting sliding modes is proposed, which guarantees the trajectory tracking control corresponding to the breathing profiles required by the patients. Experimental and simulation results validate the effectiveness of the proposed prototype design. Nevertheless, the prototype is waiting to be tested and approved for use in health assistance.