Design and Development of an Automatic Soft Robotic Parallel Manipulator Device to Aid in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

ABSTRACT Cardiac arrests are common worldwide due to unhealthy lifestyles and food habits. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is an effective way of saving patients immediately after cardiac arrest. Manual CPR is traditionally more popular, wherein chest compressions are given by a single or double rescuer. This involves adequate training to do CPR, and manual fatigue is also unavoidable. Even qualified professionals may struggle to perform chest compressions at the CPR‐recommended depth and rate. Thus, robotic chest compression manipulators are explored to improve resuscitation. The combination of robotics and automation may improve patient survival rates. Our aim is to develop a device to perform high‐quality compressions per minute up to 50 mm depth as per the American Heart Association (AHA) protocol. The device consists of three pneumatically soft‐actuated air muscles that are designed to work together to compress between 80 and 120 times/min at 260 N. A solenoid valve regulates airflow while a microprocessor controls compression. The solenoid coil's deactivation duration is precisely controlled to 50 ms to create compression depth equivalent to one‐third of the manikin's chest breadth. Our test results showed that the developed device's performance on the specialized CPR manikin (Resusci Anne QCPR, Norway) is comparable to manual compression readings as per AHA protocols. Thus, we propose it as a new suitable concept and design for a mechanical CPR device for hospital and out‐of‐hospital environments.