UTRGV /
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND COMPUTER SCIENCE / MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT
TEAM 9: “Automated” Bath for the
Bedridden
(Index
Page)
|
Students (L-R) |
·
Rodrigo González ·
Sergio M. Martinez ·
Nayeli Castro Cruz ·
Christopher Villarreal · Andres Marroquin |
|
Faculty
Advisor(s) |
·
Dr. Robert Jones ·
Mrs. Samantha
Ramirez |
|
Instructor(s) |
·
Dr. Noe Vargas
Hernandez ·
Mr. Gregory
Potter |
WHAT
IS THE PROBLEM WE ARE TRYING TO SOLVE?
WHY
IS THIS PROBLEM IMPORTANT?
LEARN
MORE ABOUT OUR DESIGN PROCESS
Welcome! We are team # 9 “Celeritas”,
which is the Latin word for the speed of light. Our team consists of Nayeli
Castro Cruz, Rodrigo Gonzalez, Andres Marroquin, Sergio Martinez and Christopher
Villarreal. This project began in Spring 2020 and continued until Fall of 2020.
The project is known as the “Automated” Bath for the Bedridden. This was
created in order to lower the work load that nurses/caregivers have whilst
ensuring that those who are bedridden get ample and frequent cleaning. The
device is essentially a portable shower that would output water and a cleaning
agent at the proper pressure and temperature while targeting the vast majority,
if not all, areas of the body. We are very excited to share the results of our
hard work and hope that you all will enjoy. Below we have some welcoming words
if you all would like to give it a look. (click on the image below to access
the video)
Nurses are individuals tasked with many crucial tasks that allow
for the proper functionality of a hospital environment. The tasks that nurses
must accomplish are to oversee the patients in the hospital, and to help the doctors
when needed. One of the tasks that nurses oversee is the bathing of the patients
that are unable to utilize their motor functions, this which usually takes a sizable
amount of time. and effort. According to our sources this should happen at
least twice a week but given the workload that any single nurse has, especially
right now, is marginable at best. As such, patients are typically bathed only once
a week, if any, at all. This was a point of contingency, as we decided that we
could help the nurses lessen their workload and upgrade the patients’ quality-of-life
while they are in the hospital.
In
order to get a better understanding of the nature of the problem, the team
conducted some background research. The most important of our findings were:
§ Patients should be bathed twice a
week, but are typically only bathed once
§ The average shower utilizes
approximately 40 gallons of water
§ The operating temperature of the
water should be in the range of approximately 90-100 ºF, and cannot exceed 112 ºF (or 110 ºF according to some sources)
§ The pressure cannot exceed 65 psi,
and each nozzle should be operating at approximately 0.625 GPM
The current solutions/means to alleviate the hassle to the
situation we are trying to solve are hospital shower chairs, hospital shower
beds, hospital shower stalls, grab bars, security poles, handheld shower heads,
and shower safety accessories. Each of these current solutions still requires quite
a large amount of work to be put in by the nurses/caregivers showering them,
however, to reiterate, our project aims to minimize this workload in that the
operator would only have to address the user to start and end the cycle.
Our main motivation to work on this project, Bath for the Bedridden,
is partly due to our own experience with bedridden family members. The targeted
consumers are, as the name implies, the bedridden. The product requires
operators who would either typically be nurses, or caregivers. These are not
the only people who would be affected by the creation of this project. The
figure below is a stakeholder diagram, which shows those who are affected
categorized into four aspects. These categories are: Health Service, Government,
Personal Support, and Financers. The first category, Health Service, lists
doctors, nurse services and therapists. Essentially, this category pertains to
those who would be directly benefit from the utilization of the project in that
they would be saving time and effort via its implementation. The next category,
Government, lists the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Americans with
Disabilities Act Enforcers. This category targets the legal aspects that need
to be addressed and sought approval of in order for
the project to be properly implemented. Then, there is Personal Support. This
category targets those who would indirectly benefit from the use of the product
and lists family, other bedridden and friends. To reiterate, this pertains to
the alleviation of the concerns for those who have connections to the users of
the product. The final category is Financers, and lists insurers, investors,
and banks. As the name implies, this category pertains to those who would
benefit and/or be affected monetarily by the creation of the product.
“We propose the design of an
“automated” bath capsule mechanism that will aid the nurse and take and bathe
the patient as the nurse does other operations of higher importance.”
Click on the image below for a brief
video on this section
After understanding the problem in depth, we explored various
potential solutions and selected the best concept. This is how our product
solution works: The patient would be placed in the chamber by an external
force, the nurse in this case. The mechanism would be connected to the hospital
faucet and to a wall outlet. The electrical energy from the outlet would power
an inline water heater, Arduino, and several UV-C lights. Water would travel
from the faucet to a pump to gain pressure. Then it would pass by an inline
water heater to achieve desired temperature. The flow would later be split
through several manifolds which would then deliver water to the patient through
nozzle outputs. A hygiene system would be implemented separately and would
deliver the cleaning agent via a siphon.
With the common lack of personal hygiene in medical
facilities experienced by bed-ridden patients, the Self Automated Bath would
ease nurses, staff, and patients with an additional option for cleanliness. A
nurse would only have to place a bed-ridden patient in the capsule, initiate
the cleaning procedure, and wait for the procedure to finish. The Bed-ridden
bath is mobile and only dependent on basic utilities (non-tempered water and
electrical power). An inline water heater would heat water to patient preferred
temperatures and an integrated soap system would evenly distribute cleaning
agents to the patient’s skin through the same nozzles used for spraying water.
After nurse’s finish using the device and the patient is removed and back to
recovering, a UV-C light system would sanitize and kill all bacteria left
behind in the initial cleaning process.
Once we
defined a clear solution idea (i.e., concept), we applied our engineering
knowledge to transform it into a real product. These were some of the important
design challenges and how we approached each one of them:
Click on the image below for a brief video
on this section.
1.
Water distribution across the system.
To make sure the water was efficiently distributed in order
to reach the nozzle at the desired water pressure, the team acquired a 1/2 HP
Portable Transfer cast aluminum Pump, with permanently lubricated bearings,
integral carry handle and a convenient On/Off switch for ease of use. Clear PVC
tubing manufactured with non-toxic FDA compounds was used to provide flexible
lines for water and soap, the tubing has excellent resistance to mild acids and
chemicals. Threaded fittings such as couplings, adapters, bushings and tees
were used to change the flow direction in the plumbing system following sizing
standards and dimensions in order to transition from one size pipe to another.
2.
Achieving a high nozzle output pressure.
Using the previously mentioned manifold and preliminary pump,
the water pressure exiting the system was still underperforming. After
experimenting with nozzle sizes and pumps, a High-powered pump was used as the
solution. The newly introduced High Powered pump contained a larger inlet
diameter, which increased water pressure in the smaller diameter
tubing's/nozzle outlets.
3. Support for varying sizes of
patients/limbs.
After downsizing the design due to budget constraints, a
fabric mesh was incorporated to allow drainage of the water, and to allow for
accommodating to various limb sizes.
;
Click on the image above for a video displaying what
is occurring
4. Heating water for patient use.
After experimenting with various water heaters, a Rheem tankless water heater was introduced. Mentionable
complications include powering the stripped water heater, which was solved
after experimenting with the wire configurations and discovering that the water
heater needs to be powered connected and have water flowing through it in order
to power on and heat passing water.
5. Disinfecting the system after use.
Disinfecting the system was a challenge, especially considering
the UV lights would be near continuously discharged water. To circumvent this,
a cover was placed around the system to prevent damage to the UV lights, and
zip tied the UV lights to sit in strategic locations to disinfect commonly used
areas.
We found that physical prototyping was very helpful to increase
our understanding of the problem and the feasibility of our solutions. Our
first prototypes were simple but useful as we started to learn and envision
where everything would be positioned in a final product.
Click on the image above for a brief video on this topic
Our first prototype, while we may not have any visual documentation of it, it helped us understand that there were ideas and functions that would need to be thought out and readjusted to meet the new standard. What the prototype shows is a card box house shaped enclosure with a rotating bed that allowed for radial movement while still held in place. That was an optimistic design to say the least. The design introduced many different mechanisms that would make this project more complex than anticipated, as well as not taking into account the spacing required for several necessary subsystems.
Our second prototype, it may look simply, as seen above, it
helped us understand that there were some more ideas that needed adjustment.
Namely the holes in the surface that would make the draining system, this we
would change to just a regular plane surface that would be inclined. This
prototype did help out with the visualization of the
hinge mechanism that would serve as the cover for the device. This iteration of
the project did consider having space under the washing mechanism to allow the
storage of other components.
The third prototype was made in the latter half of Senior Design
II and is displayed on the image above. After prototyping out the cardboard
design, this PVC prototype was created as a base for the design moving forward.
Important features highlighted in this design that were untouched in the
previous prototype was the nozzle system and tubing's. While the cardboard
prototype gave insight in the feasibility and functionality of the system, consideration
for the nozzle system was excluded. With this PVC prototype, the group was able
to continue design on the prototype, while keeping high consideration for the
piping and any kinks that would result from changes done to the prototype.
The fruits of our labor amounted to the following. To address
the difference in expected scale, due to a lack of funding mixed in with
current events, the prototype was scaled down to target a forearm. This was
done with the intention of simulating how a finalized product would work on a
full body when taking certain design choices into consideration while targeting
an area of note in the meantime. Without further ado, we have our final
prototype below.
Click on the image above for a video going
over the section as well as a compilation of the experiments taken up to this
point
Here we can see a side view of our final prototype as it
would look like during operation. The components of note in this image are the
pump and water heater mechanisms in the middle shelf of the triple layered
carrying structure. These were placed in such a manner to be easily accessible
in case of an emergency and are routed to not interfere with other components.
The most notable aspect of the top layer is that you cannot see much of it. The
final product would be a bath for the bedridden, and one of the primary
concerns we had to address was that of privacy. In order to cater to raise the
overall comfort of the users, we implemented an opaque layer of PVC sheet to
block the spray area. An area of note here is that we are not using a
traditional garden hose. The suction of the pump is too powerful and would shrink
in on itself when utilized with regular hoses, so we decided to make our own.
The hose we implemented is made of reinforced PVC and is sturdy enough to be
compatible with the power of the pump.
While
the final product revolves around catering to privacy, it makes it harder to
appreciate/ visualize what is actually occurring. In
this image, we show what is going on under the privacy cover. You can see a
mesh that an arm is resting on, tubing that leads to a fixture, a structure
that holds everything together, UVC lights, and a clear sheet dividing the
electrical components from the spray area.
In
this image, we get a perspective from the back of the system towards the front.
Here we can more clearly see the layers of the inner spray area. Below we have
tubing running into more of the fixtures mentioned in the previous image. The
middle layer shows the mesh and how the arm rests on it in a clearer manner. In
the preface to this section, I mentioned that this prototype was developed with
the intention of simulating how a whole person would be in a bigger more
complete system. The entrance to where the arm is coming through is what is
most heavily impacted by this. The entrance is meant to simulate the mandatory
separation between bathing the body and the head. There are too many issues
that could occur when taking the bathing of a bedridden person into account,
and as such it was deemed better to design a system where the neck down is what
would be targeted. The top layer shows a better look into what comes out of the
fixtures. This being the spray nozzles. An important aspect of note is that we
pulled the nozzle further out then intended in order to better visualize the
multiple components at play. As such, it is apparent that the nozzles are not
properly aimed at the targeted areas. It is hard to see from this image, but we
have markers in place to make the calibration process easier. One area of
concern that we had to address here was that there were no fine threaded
fixtures to go from the tubing to the actual spray nozzles, meaning that we had
to go and machine our own.
This
image shows one of the UVC lights being powered. The reason for having UVC
lights is to sanitize the system post use so that it will be able to be used again
by another after a while. This image also better shows the meshed entrance to
the system.
Our project is a proof of concept that
requires further development, these are some of the pending items:
Click on the image above for a brief video on
the topic
Graphical User Interface (GUI): The purpose of implementing a GUI
was to create a user interface where users could select the patient age, and
the Arduino would handle the logic and special bathing operations, based on
user feedback. The current system works as intended, however, a microcontroller
with a user interface has yet to be added. This is due to the limitations of
the Arduino, and due to lack of time to incorporate the microcontroller to the
completed prototype. An important note to mention is that the demand of a GUI
on the Arduino leaves little room for additional components. After connecting
the minimal requirements for the GUI, little to no pins were available for
additional components (Water Heater, Pump, UV Lights, Solenoid Valve).
Due to this, for future planning, a larger microcontroller (ie
Arduino Mega) may be a better option, as more communication pins are available,
and would allow the integration of other components (Water Heater, Pump, UV
Lights, Solenoid Valve).
Microcontroller Automation / 12V Solenoid Valve: After determining the Arduino was
incapable of controlling additional components along with the GUI, a simpler
approach was taken. The GUI was removed, and a simpler build was drafted – containing
only essentials: Input Button (Left button), Emergency Stop (Right button) and solenoid
valve control. Due to a group COVID scare, and focus on having a working
system, the solenoid valve automation was postponed. A working prototype was
achieved, and a YouTube link is attached here for reference. (click at the end of the video is the valve)
Click on the image above to watch a video on the system
Soap System: While focus was kept on having a working system, the soap
system needed additional focus and funding. Simple approaches were tested to
try and implement a soap system, but priority was given to completing a working
water and electrical system which could be dispersed without intervention
(Water Heater, Pump, etc.). If given an additional 6 weeks of time with
additional funding, a siphon system would be implemented into the system. The
siphon would use the already existent pressure in the water system just after
the thermostatic mixing valve to supply a cleaning agent. The cleaning agent
would allow easier removal of dirt and particles as well as lubricate the
cleaned surface.
IN CONCLUSION
Our Senior Design experience was very unorthodox. The fact that it occurred during a pandemic rendered
some plans useless and adaptation needed happen. At first, we thought that
Senior Design was going to be very stressful and very “do yourself” kind of
course. While it was stressful at times, our expectations changed as we were
guided through several processes, some more helpful than others, for which an
idea can be born, and nursed to become an actual product. Senior Design I was
an interesting class that allowed for us to come up with an idea, or choose a
pre-existing one, that we were interested on in order to begin a design
process. Once an idea was set, then the process of deciding which mechanism would
be most optimal to cover a specific function was done in order to achieve a
desirable result. Budgeting and getting a list of materials to use on the project
was rather challenging because of when it took place. We were notified that the
material list typically needs to be ready by around April, but since we were in
the middle of a pandemic, the ordering period was delayed until the later parts
of the summer. By then we had some materials noted down, but we were still
missing a large portion of the materials. We managed to put a list of materials
together and purchased materials with the intent to use them in the project
construction.
In
addition to COVID challenges, an influx of new and changing personnel made the
overall senior design experience different. Having a different initial team
versus a final team affected the overall vision for the project. These changes
however gave us a sense of how real-world projects are completed. Having a
proper and detailed designs and schedules allows any individual to take over
the progress. This also allowed a new look or a “fresh set of eyes” for
challenges the team overcame.
Senior
Design II was a whole other animal to approach with the current state of the
world. At the beginning we lost in the sense that we really didn’t know how to
progress. The space for us to work at was having its capacity decreased and we
had to compete with other teams to get a working space in the “Maker Space”.
This problem was later solved by Christopher who was introduced to the team at
the beginning of SDII. He allowed us to work in his warehouse where we
continued to make progress and produced a final prototype. A big take away from
this course is the effectiveness of time management. That was a big role in the
class, there were several due dates that we needed to meet while not everyone
in the team was aware. This also brings up another important lesson thought in
the class, teamwork. If we could have done anything different, it would be to
better distribute the workload and stablish a concise and more constant
communication amongst team members in order to inform of progress being made.
REFERENCES
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Our team carefully followed a series of steps in order to stick
to a successful engineering design process and come up with a suitable solution
to the problem, focusing on the final user needs, stakeholders, specific
feedback from nurses, effective testing of the prototype and having in mind a
realistic timeline to come up with the final solution/prototype. Several ideas
were brainstormed and evaluated to develop a satisfactory solution. To learn more about this and have
access to the design process details, go to the DESIGN PROCESS page. To obtain
access contact the course instructor.
During the project development our team received help from UTRGV
Faculty, UTRGV staff, nurses, plumbing experts and we would like to thank them
for their guidance and support through each stage of the process.
We extend our deep gratitude to Dr. Robert Jones and Mrs.
Samantha Ramirez for supporting our interest in the development of innovative
technologies that impact the lives of the most vulnerable and for inspiring us
to address their needs in creative and efficient ways.
We would like to sincerely acknowledge Dr. Noe Vargas and Mr.
Gregory Potter for their continuous guidance in our process of converting our
idea into a reality and clearly defining specific goals.
We are also grateful to Dr. Horacio Vasquez, Mr. Fernando
Gonzalez, Dr. Robert Freeman, Ms. Annie Salinas, Mr. Oscar Flores, nurses and
Mr. Andy Villarreal for their help or feedback during our design process.
A very special thanks to AV Plumbing LLC for allowing us to
work in their facilities and providing us tools, equipment and material
donation.
This project was satisfactorily accomplished thanks to the
contributions of the people mentioned above, among others, that despite their
busy schedules they were willing to contribute to this project and the
improvement of the patients’ hygiene routine. We cannot express enough our gratitude
for their continuous support and encouragement.