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Flexible Low Resource Bronchoscope

Progress Update 1/24

Posted by on Friday, January 24, 2020 in News.

This past week, we took a step back and realized that our designs had possible mechanical flaws. The actuation wires can get tangled when the bronchoscope is in use. Therefore, we took the first part of the week to go back to the drawing board and come up with 2 brand new designs (Fig. 1-2), both with their pros and cons. We also took this lull during the first week to go get certified at the MakerSpace so that we would have access to the laser cutter and 3-D printer. This visit was also helpful since the MakerSpace mentors told us that it would take anywhere from 3 days to 2 weeks to get a part printed. We therefore decided to use the laser cutter to rapidly prototype our parts instead of using a 3D printer. Lastly, take all of the previous information into consideration, we have started the prototype process for both designs (shown below) as well as started to look into market routes for how we would get our device into low resource markets.

Figure 1
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2

Our current short-term goal is the production of a functional prototype and in the past week have made significant strides towards this end. We have brainstormed modeled two different control systems and plan to test each to weigh their pros and cons. We are currently waiting on part shipment and 3D printing before we begin building. While waiting for parts we have taken time to get certified at the MakerSpace in the Wondry in order to have access to the laser cutter and 3D printer in the future. 

Additionally, we have decided to integrate basic imaging capabilities into our prototype using a Raspberry Pi camera module. This will allow us to create complementary OpenCV code that is easily modifiable to run the OmniVision camera chip we plan to implement in our final design.

For the long term, we have begun the investigation of potential distribution channels to ensure that our finished product will be accessible to populations in low resource areas rapidly and without substantial delivery costs. In the coming weeks we will be working alongside our advisor to produce a marketing plan that benefits the manufacturer and consumers involved.