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Design and Development of an Infant Incubator for Controlling Multiple

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Article in Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering · September 2012

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 Design and Development of an Infant Incubator for Controlling
Multiple Parameters
Hitu Mittal 1 , Lini Mathew 1 , Ashish Gupta 2
ABSTRACT :The preterm infant care is one of the mostimportant, delegate and sensitive area in the
Bio-medicalfield. Somenew-born’s are at a higher risk of mortality andare called high risk infants,
because the gestational age ortheir birth weight put them at a higher-than-average risk of disease and
death. Since most infants hospitalized in NICUare born preterm, the problems of high risk infants
aremainly related to prematurity. Thirty eight percent of mortalities in the first 5 years of age belong
to prenatalperiod and out of these, 28% is related to preterm birth. Theresults of statistics in Iran show
that in 1980,13% of new-born were preterm, while in 2006 more than 30% of birthswere preterm[3].
Preterm baby requires surroundingexactly similar as in the womb to cope with the
externalenvironment. Perhaps the most important conclusion fromrecent research into the effects of
the physical environmenton preterm infants is that each infant should have a ‘microenvironment’,
which can be individualized to needsthat are specific to that child’s gestational age and medical
condition. To some extent, the incubator can serve as thismicroenvironment, controlling light, sound,
smell andprotecting from infection [3][5]. An infant incubatorprovides stable levels of temperature,
relative humidity, lightcondition and oxygen level up to an extent in which thepreterm have same
condition as in the womb. Airtemperature has to be maintained around 35ºC[1]. Thepurpose of this
project is to design and implement a closedloop control system to regulate the temperature, humidity,
light intensity by using LED’s to avoid jaundice condition and the proper amount of oxygen level
inside a neonatalincubator[2]. Microcontroller and PID controller will beused for implementing the
hardware. The closed loop controlsystem is a combination of sensors and actuators thatoperates
synchronously to provide a stable thermal environment inside the incubator [3].Keywords: Incubator,
Temperature, Humidity, Oxygen,Light, LED, Microcontroller, PID Controller.
INTRODUCTION
Infants who born before 37 weeks of the gestation periodare known aspreterm or premature babies.
Preterm babyrequires surrounding exactly similar as in the womb tocope with the external
environment. In fact mammalshave the advantage of being homoeothermic,i.e.theyhave a nearly
uniform body temperature, regulatedindependent of theenvironmentaltemperature. Vitalorgans or
enzymes of premature babies grow to the verylesser extent and thus requires special attention to
copewith external physical condition like temperature,humidity, light and oxygen level. The infant has
severaldisadvantages in terms of thermal regulation. An infanthas a relatively large surface area, poor
thermal insulation and a small amount of mass to act as a heat sink. The new-born has little ability to
conserve heat by changing postureand no ability to adjust their own clothing in a response tothermal
stress. Responses may also be hindered by illnessor adverse conditions such as hypoxia (below
normallevels of oxygen). To provide the similar environment asin the womb infants have to be kept in
a device known asincubator. An infant incubator is a device consisting of arigid box-like enclosure in
which an infant may be kept ina controlled environment for medical care. An infantincubator provides
stable levels of temperature, relativehumidity and oxygen concentration [28]. Air temperaturehas to
be maintained around 37ºC. The relative humidityshould follow set values according to the number
of incubation days [18].
II. INCUBATOR
The first official neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU) forneonates was established in 1961
at Vanderbilt University.Incubator is a device in which premature or unusuallysmall babies are placed
and which provides a controlledand protective environment for their care[4]. Every year,about 1
million infants in the developing world die due toheat loss and dehydration that can be prevented by
anintensive care unit i.e. incubators[3]. Thus incubatorsprovides congenial atmosphere for the infants,
whichhelps in thermoregulation. The incubator is considered asan air conditioned room with special
specification whichwe can be control with respect to the condition of baby inincubator. Incubators are
designed to provide an optimalenvironment for new born babies with growth
problems(premature baby) or with illness problems[4]. Theincubator is an isolated area environment
with no dust,bacteria, and has the ability to control temperature,humidity, and oxygen to remain them
in acceptable levels.Incubator is designed to keep baby warm, to monitormany of their vital body
functions like heart rate, bloodpressure, oxygen saturation and to support their breathingif necessary.
Regarding the temperature and humiditycontrol, incubators should minimize heatloss from theneonate
and eddies around him/her. The main physicalvariables affecting the incubator environment
aretemperature, humidity, oxygen saturation andlight
II. PARAMETERS AFFECTING THEINCUBATORS3.1TEMPERATURE
The infants have very lowthermal regulation andtemperature regulation is one of the most
importantfactors which affect the preterm. One of the majorproblems that new-born’s face is improper
thermoregulation. The temperature inside the mother’s womb is 38ºC (100.4ºF). Leaving the warmth
of thewomb at birth, the wet new born finds itself in a muchcolder environment and immediately
starts losing heat. If heat loss is not prevented and is allowed to continue, the baby will develop
hypothermia and is at increased risk of developing health problems and of death[6].Avoiding
hypothermia (rectal temperature less than 36.5°C or 96.8°F) is important for new-born health
outcomes because hypothermia increases morbidity and mortality. A baby can lose one degree of
body temperature per minute when wet, even in a room that is not obviously cold. To prevent heat
loss, it is necessary to dry up the baby and wrap the baby in a clean, dry cloth and to make sure the
baby’s head is covered (WHO, 1977).
3.2HUMIDITY
Low relative humidity of a servo controlled incubatorincreases the temperature of the incubator itself
and theoxygen consumption of premature infants accordingly.This causes an increase in the insensible
water losses. Inaddition, premature infants with small weight or illnessesaresusceptible to unfavorable
incidents such as apneicspells. However, insensible water losses under radiantwarmers are higher than
conventional incubators.Apparently, small variations in relative humidity insideincubators with skin
servo control do notinfluence theinsensible water loss; however significant fluctuations inrelative
humidity would vary the amount of insensiblewater losses. Few investigations have shown that the
bodyweight and insensible water loss is inversely proportionalto the waterloss. The humidity of
the shell environmentcan negatively affect the patient if it is not at a healthylevel. Infants can lose
moisture and heat by evaporation if humidity is too low, while higher levels of humidityincrease the
likelihood for germs andbacteria to bepresent. The ability to control or at least monitor humidityis
beneficial[4].
3.3LIGHT
The physical environments of hospitals are critical to goodpatient care. High light levels (e.g.
phototherapy) the lack of regular light/dark cyclesmay also adversely affect new-born patients. The
level of ambient light should be flexibleto allow day-night cycling[5]. The technique to controlthe
jaundice in the neonates is also comprises of lighttherapy. Phototherapy is the best solution to control
the jaundice in the premature babies placed in babyincubators. Babies with jaundice will usually
receive thetreatment of phototherapy for 4 to 7 days. When ill infantswith low birth weight receive
phototherapy in incubators,their insensible water losses are significantly doubled ortripled. This is
attributed to the heat source placed insidethe incubator for the purpose of phototherapy. It may alsobe
attributed to the delay in time until the effectiveness of phototherapeutic processes is reached. In a
radiant heatwarmer, the exposure to non-ionizing radiant energycauses several changes in infants who
requiredphototherapy (such as, changes in body temperature,higher insensible water loss and fluid
intakes) [6].Although it can be necessary to useradiant heat warmer tonurse premature infants with
low birth weight instead of incubators, this causes an increase of insensible waterlosses. Thus, the
smaller the infant (small body weight)the higher the insensible water losses and the fluid
intakesaccordingly.
3.4OXYGENATION
Oxygenation is a therapeutic process in which oxygen isadministered directly to facilitate breathing. If
a baby bornmore than two months early, her breathing difficulties cancause serious health problems
because other immatureorgans in her body may not get enough oxygen.Ventilation is necessary to
provide the patient with freshair and sufficient oxygen. Flowing air is also necessary toprovide
sufficient transfer of heat from the heat source tothe shell environment and the patient. The
ventilationneeds to be carefully managed so that there is enoughfresh air and convective heat transfer
over the heatexchanger, but the flow is not so fast that it makes thepatient uncomfortable and causes
an increase in heat lossof theincubation system to the outside environment [26].Incubator oxygen
treatments have been used to preventnew-born respiratory distress. The oxygen concentrationof
inhalation is fixed at a rather high level to improve thedistress and the anoxia, while the arterial
oxygen partialpressure PaO2of new-born infants sometimes becomesextremely high and brings about
retrolental fibroplasia inthe worst case. It is hence desired that the oxygen pressureof inspired gas in
an incubator should be adjustedadequately in accordance with the monitored PaO2output[31].The
block diagram of the project is shown in Fig.1. Itmainly consists of the temperature sensor,
humiditysensor, light sensor, carbon di-oxide sensor, PIDcontroller and Microcontroller
Fig1. Block Diagram of the HardwareIV. DESIGN COMPONENTS4.1TEMPERATURE
SENSOR DS18B20
The DS18B20 Digital thermometer provides 9 to 12
–
bitcentigrade temperature measurements and has an alarmfunction with non-volatile user-
programmable upper andlower trigger points as shown in Fig.2. The DS18B20communicates over a
1-Wire bus that by definitionrequires only one data line (and ground) forcommunication with a central
microprocessor. It has anoperating temperature range of 55°C to +125°C and isaccurate to ±0.5°C
over the range of 10°C to +85°C. Inaddition, the DS18B20 can derive power directly from the
data line (“parasite power”), eliminating the need for an external powersupply [6].The core
functionality of theDS18B20 is its direct-to-digital temperature sensor. Theresolution of the
temperature sensor is user-configurableto 9, 10, 11, or 12 bits, corresponding to increments of 0.5°C,
0.25°C, 0.125°C, and 0.0625°C, respectively. Thedefault resolution at power-up is 12-bit. The
DS18B20powers up ina low-power idle state. To initiate atemperature measurement and A-to-D
conversion, themaster must issue a Convert T command. Following theconversion, the resulting
thermal data is stored in the 2-byte temperature register in the scratchpad memory andthe DS18B20
returns to its idle state. If the DS18B20 is powered by an external supply, the master can issue
“readtime slots” (see the 1 -Wire Bus System section) after theConvert T command and the DS18B20
will respond bytransmitting 0 while the temperature conversion is inprogress and 1 when the
conversion is done. If theDS18B20 is powered with parasite power, this notificationtechnique cannot
be used since the bus must be pulledhigh by a strong pull up during the entire
temperatureconversion.TheDS18B20 output temperature data is calibrated indegrees Celsius and for
Fahrenheit applications, a lookuptable or conversion routine must be used. The temperaturedata is
stored as a 16-bit sign-
extended two’s complement
number in the temperature register.For designing ourincubator we have used temperature sensor
DS18B20,which is then interfaced with microcontroller (ARDUINOMEGA 2560). The interfacing of
both temperature andhumidity sensor with microcontrolleris shown in fig. 2
Fig. 2Interfacing of DS18B20 and DHT-11 withMicrocontroller4.2HUMIDITY SENSOR
Humidity sensor should provide humidity level in theincubator in terms of relative humidity (%RH)
in therange of 0-100%RH. The humidity sensor chosen for thepresent work is DHT11.Application of
a dedicated digitalmodules collection technology and the temperature andhumidity sensing
technology, to ensure that the producthas high reliability and excellent long-term stability. Thesensor
includes a resistive sense of wet components andan NTC temperature measurement device, and
connectedwith a high-performance 8-bit microcontroller[8].DHT11uses a simplified single-bus
communication. Single busthat only one data line, the system of data exchange,control by a single bus
to complete.Device (master orslave) through an open drain or tri-state port connected tothe data line
to allow the device does not send data torelease the bus,while other devices use the bus,single bus
usually require an external one about 5.1kΩ pull
-upresistor, so that when the bus is idle, its status is high.Because they are the master-slave structure,
and onlywhen the host calls the slave, the slave can answer, thehost access devices must strictly
follow the single-bussequence, if the chaotic sequence, the device will notrespond to the host.Its
connection diagram withmicrocontroller ATMEGA 2560 is also shown in fig.2.
4.3LIGHT SENSOR
Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) is used for detecting theintensity of light in the incubator. For
controlling the
jaundice in infants the LED PT series will be used. Itdelivers a blue light with the peak intensity of
455nm. Thelight is free of unwanted UV and IR radiations. LEDmaintains the intensity of light level
for 20,000 hrs. In thisproject we have made the array of LED. LED’s are opto-semiconductors that
convert electrical energy into lightenergy. LED’s offer the advantages of low cost and a longservice
life compared to laser diodes. LED’s are broadlygrouped into visible LED’s and invisible
LED’s . Visible LED’s are mainly used for display or illumination, where LED’s are used
individually without photo sensors.Invisible LED’s are mainly used with photo sensors suchas
photodiodes or CMOSimage sensors. In the categoryof visible LED, red LED’s are used in
combination withphoto sensors for applications such as optical switches.These red LED’s have high
emission power that allowsphoto sensors to generate a large photocurrent. In thecategory of invisible
LED infrared LED’s are alsoavailable. These red LED’s and infrared LED’s are usedin a wide range
of applications including optical switches,optical communications, analysis and CMOS imagesensor
lighting. Advances in crystal growth technologyand wafer process technology led to develop high-
output,long-life
LED’s (operable for ten years or longer underthe optimal drive conditions).
4.4CARBON MONO-OXIDE SENSOR (MQ-7)
MQ-7 sensor is mainly used to determine the Carbonmonoxide gas detection[9].As the concentration
of bothcarbon di oxide and carbon mono oxide are same, so wecan use CO sensor as well to measure
the CO2gas. Thecost of CO sensor is really low as compared to that of CO2sensor and
while designing a low cost infantincubator the cost parameter plays a major role.Measurement of gas
pollutants in atmosphere is always achallenging job due to the accuracy required in itsmeasurement.
The unprecedented growth in moderntechnologies and the continued development of industrialization
has made the issue of environmentalpollution increasingly Carbon monoxide serious
andalarming.Among the various gas sensors available in themarket, semiconductor sensors are
considered to have fastresponse, high stability, low dependency onhumidity, lowcost, long life, low
power consumption, and small size etc.The semiconductor sensor consists of one or more metaloxides
such as tin oxide, aluminum oxide etc. MQ-7 is thesemiconductor sensor mainly used to detect
Carbonmonoxide gas at theambient atmosphere by using itssensing layer whichis consisted of
aluminum oxide.When heated to a high temperature an N typesemiconducting material decreases its
resistance while Ptype increases its resistance in the presence of a reducinggas. Therefore, a
semiconductor sensor produces a strongsignal at high gas concentrations. MQ-7 is also produce
astrong signal so that it can detect CO from any of theambient atmospheres which contain Carbon
monoxide gasin hazardous level.Itscircuit diagram isshown in Fig 3and interfacing of MQ-7
sensor with microcontrollerATmega 2560 is shown in Fig.4
4.5MICROCONTROLLER
The microcontroller usedis Arduino mega2560. TheArduino Mega 2560 is a microcontroller board
based onthe ATmega2560 (datasheet). It has 54 digital input/outputpins (of which 14 can be used as
PWM outputs), 16analog inputs, 4 UARTs (hardware serial ports), a 16MHz crystal oscillator, a USB
connection, a power jack,an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everythingneeded to support
the microcontroller; simply connect it toa computer with a USB cable or power it with a AC-to-DC
adapter or battery to get started. TheMega iscompatible with most shields designed for the
ArduinoDuemilanove or Diecimila. The Arduino Mega2560 can be powered via the USB connection
or with an externalpower supply. The power source is selected automatically.External (non-USB)
power can come either from an AC-to-DC adapter (wall wart) or battery. The adapter can
beconnected by plugging a 2.1mm center-positive plug intothe board's power jack. Leads from a
battery can beinserted in the GNDand VINpin headers of the POWERconnector. The board can
operate on an external supply of 6 to 20 volts. If supplied with less than 7V, however, the5V pin may
supply less than five volts and the board maybe unstable. If using more than 12V, the voltage
regulatormay overheat and damage the board. The recommendedrange is 7 to 12
volts.TheATMega2560 differs from all preceding boards inthat it does not use the FTDI USB-to-
serial driver chip.Instead, it features the Atmega8U2 programmed as aUSB-to-serial converter. The
ATmega2560 has 256 KB of flashmemory for storing code, 8 KB of SRAM and 4 KBof EEPROM
(which can be read and written with theEEPROM library).TheATMega2560 has 16 analoginputs,
each of which provides 10 bits of resolution (i.e.1024 different values).They measure from ground to
5volts, though is it possible to change the upper end of theirrange using the AREF pin and Analog
Reference function.It controls the operation of sensors and gives the outputthrough LCD display
as shownin the circuitry shown inFig5.
Using DS18B20 we found that the time response is reallyfast as 1±1 sec (We have put a delay of 1 sec
in acomplete loop to match the LCD responses). If weincrease the delay of the loop more than 1 sec,
there willbe a garbage value. In Table 5.1, we have given thechange in temperature with respect to
time by the study of temperature sensor DS18B20.
Table1 Time vs Incubator TemperatureTime (seconds)IncubatorTemperature (°C)
033.25533.481033.861534.132034.192534.253034.313534.384034.464534.545034.615534.76034.81
6534.8870357535.58035.2
In Table1, we had given the temperature change withrespect to time by the study of temperature
sensorDS18B20. The maximum temperature range set for theinfant in this incubator is 35°C. Initially
when incubator isturned ON then the initial temperature is found to be at33.75°C. As the time
increases differentvalues of temperatures have been recorded. As a result we haveseen that due to the
heat produced by the bulb, thetemperature gradually increase and attains the set valuei.e. 35°C.Now if
the temperature of the incubatorincreases more than 35°C temperature sensor will sense itand turn ON
the Fan which in turn cools itdown to thegiven temperature.The graph between time andtemperature
of incubator, obtained by the results is shownin Fig.
5.2RelativeHumidity Achieved by the System
Relative humidity, an important factor in designing of anincubator to control thermal loss in an infant,
is controlledby the heater of the water reservoir. The temperaturewhich is used to heat the water inside
the incubatordepends on the maximum-minimum value of relativehumidity required in the chamber.
Humidity can also beincreased and decreased by using water content in the air.Some observations are
shown in the table 5.2 for thedifferent values of relative humidity with respect to watertemperature
5.3RESULT OF LED
Phototherapy should be started immediately if a rapidlyrising bilirubin is expected and with jaundice
at less than24 hours. Light-emitting diode (LED) light sourcephototherapy is effective in bringing
down levels of serumtotal bilirubin at rates that are similar to phototherapy withconventional
(compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) orhalogen) light sources. According to level of disease
detecting by the doctor’s diagnosis we can manually
change (increase or decrease) the intensity of light usingpotentiometer. Potentiometer controls the
current passing
through the LED’s which in turn results the change in
intensity of LEDshown in Fig.8. The light can be appliedwith overhead lamps, which means that the
baby's eyesneed to be covered, or with a device called aBiliblanket,which sits under thebaby's
clothingclose to its skin
5.4RESULT OF MQ-7 SENSOR
Sensor resistance varies a logarithmic function of gasconcentration, sensitivity characteristics to a
certain gasdiffer with sensor type. When measuring a certain gas,possible interference of co-existing
gases must always betaken into consideration. The curve for the variation of CO gas concentration
with respect to the sensorresistanceis shown in Fig 9 and the concentration of CO2 ismeasured by
using MQ-7 sensor has been explained inTable3
5.5INCUBATOR IN WORKING CONDITION
After designing the hardware when the project comes inworking condition then the different results
will beobtained which are shown in theof Fig.10, showingdifferent values for two different time after
switching ONthe incubator.In Fig 10(a) we have seen the values which we are gettingat the
initial stage after switching ONthe incubator. Whilein Fig 10(b) we got the values of temperature
andhumidity after 25 seconds of time.
(a)(b)Fig.10Values for Different parameters: (a) Values atTime = 0 Seconds(b) Values at Time =
25 Seconds.
From above Fig 10we have seen the difference intemperature as well as humidity with respect to
timewhose graphs has been shown in Fig.8 and Fig.9simultaneously

VI.CONCLUSION
The objective of this project is to design and developmicrocontroller and closed loop control system
basedtemperature, humidity, oxygen concentration and lightcontroller for infant incubator. To achieve
this hardware isdesigned so that the above mentioned parameters can bemonitored for the normal
growth of an infant.This system can provide optimum automatic control of temperature for the infant
 using closed loop controlsystem. Moreover it controls the heater of water reservoiraccording to
relative humidity in the infant chamber. Thecontrol of relative humidity in chamber is required for
making the thermal losses lessen from the infant’s body.
Also controlling of light will provide proper growth ininfant. The controlling of the concentration of
gas with theCO sensor is beneficial for infant to protect him fromvarious kinds of breath diseases.
VII.FUTURE SCOPE
Any work, whatsoever precise it may be, has always somescope of improvement. On the same lines
the authorenvisages that there is lot of scope of improvement in thepresent work. Some ofthe future
aspects of the work interms of its improvements are the parameters such aspulse measurement can
also be introduced for closemonitoring and the response of the project can furtherimproved by using
the different tuning techniques used forPIDcontrollers.The GSM technique canalsobe used toreduce
the noise created by the alarms in the closemonitoring.

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