On July 29, Festo and Fraunhofer IPA received an award for their "Virus Fighters Handbook" app at the Give a Breath Challenge Award Ceremony in Munich, an ideas competition organized by Munich Re and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft to combat the coronavirus crisis.
In their project, Festo and a team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) joined forces with medical professionals from several clinics to develop a concept for a digital handbook based on an existing app. The app provides registered users with information on the use and maintenance of the competition's newly developed ventilators as well as specific knowledge on dealing with Covid-19 patients.
With Smartenance, Festo provided an existing and stable platform that only needed to be reprogrammed with minimal effort. The Smartenance software is normally used for the maintenance and servicing of machines and systems in industrial production. The Fraunhofer team, which specializes in the development of didactic material in the field of medical technology, provided the training content.
The Give a Breath Challenge was launched by Munich Re and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft in March. The challenge had three categories: The first was looking for designs for non-invasive ventilators and oxygen concentration devices. The second category was for the development of non-invasive respiratory masks.
The third category supports the provision of information on the use of the developed devices as well as basic knowledge on Covid-19 for additionally required support personnel. These three parts can be used to create a complete ventilation system. The devices should be able to be produced anywhere in the world using 3D printing or other rapid manufacturing processes.
