‘PRAANA’: IISc Team Successfully Completes Prototyping Of Indigenously Developed ICU-Grade Ventilator 

Amid the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country, a team of engineers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru has successfully completed the prototyping of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) grade ventilator called PRAANA.

Built using a custom-designed pneumatic system controlled by a microprocessor, PRAANA ventilator uses proprietary algorithms and techniques to blend air and oxygen in the desired ratio, the institute said in a statement.

“It also has fine-grained control of patient-side respiratory parameters such as respiration rate, inspiration to expiration ratio, FiO2, and PEEP,” the statement added.

The PRAANA ventilator, which supports both invasive and non-invasive ventilation, uses only components made in India or easily available in the domestic supply chains.

Project PRAANA was started by IISc faculty members Gaurab Banerjee, Duvvuri Subrahmanyam, TV Prabhakar, and Pratikash Panda, Bangalore-based engineer Manas Pradhan, and retired IISc professor HS Jamadagni.

The team took about 35 days to go from the drawing board to a proof-of-concept system, and then a working prototype in another two weeks.

The project team was assisted by many volunteers including physicians Dr Supreet Khare, Dr Sriram Sampath, and Dr Krishna Prasad.

“We are now actively exploring options to collaborate with an industry partner to further co-develop the prototype into a field-ready product,” said Duvvuri Subrahmanyam, a founding team member of the Project Praana.

The project received internal support from IISc, external funding from the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India, and a CSR contribution from the State Bank of India Foundation. Narayana Health, Bengaluru, provided medical testing equipment for verification of the ventilator performance, the Institute said.

The development has come as the Covid-19 cases in India are nearing the 2 lakh mark.

According to the latest Health Ministry data, India has over 1.98 lakh Covid-19 positive cases, including 97,581 active cases, 5,598 fatalities, and 95,526 recoveries.