An Accurate and Flexible Pneumatic Generator for NNS Stimulation Tests

This paper presents an accurate and flexible pneumatic generator for non-nutritive sucking (NNS) stimulation applications. Basically, the pneumatic generator includes excited by an electric wave signal generator, a charge amplifier, an accelerometer and an air cylinder. It is possible to adjust the amplitude, the frequency and the waveform of the pneumatic output signal. This signal is measured by an accurate pressure loop calibrator and applied to a linear actuator air cylinder and to a common pacifier, used for NNS stimulation. The proposed system includes a data acquisition board and is controlled by a LabVIEW based virtual instrument. The paper includes a detailed description of the measurement system, hardware and software parts, and several experimental results related with pneumatic signal generation and pressure measurement.