Article
Development of a Novel Anesthesia Airway
Management Robot
Xuesong Ma
1,2
, Bo Pan
3
, Tao Song
3
, Yanwen Sun
3
and Yili Fu
1,3,
*
Citation: Ma, X.; Pan, B.; Song, T.;
Sun, Y.; Fu, Y. Development of a
Novel Anesthesia Airway
Management Robot. Sensors 2021, 21,
8144. https://doi.org/10.3390/
s21238144
Academic Editors: Yuansong Qiao
and Seamus Gordon
Received: 21 October 2021
Accepted: 1 December 2021
Published: 6 December 2021
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4.0/).
1
School of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China;
120001712@hrbmu.edu.cn
2
The Fourth Clinical Medical School, Harbin Medical University, Harbin 150001, China
3
State Key Laboratory of Robotics and Systems, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China;
mepanbo@hit.edu.cn (B.P.); 16b908032@stu.hit.edu.cn (T.S.); syw.hit@hit.edu.cn (Y.S.)
* Correspondence: meylfu@hit.edu.cn
Abstract:
Non-invasive positive pressure ventilation has attracted increasing attention for air man-
agement in general anesthesia. This work proposes a novel robot equipped with two snake arms and
a mask-fastening mechanism to facilitate trachea airway management for anesthesia as well as deep
sedation and to improve surgical outcomes. The two snake arms with supporting terminals have
been designed to lift a patient’s jaw with design optimization, and the mask-fastening mechanism
has been utilized to fasten the mask onto a patient’s face. The control unit has been developed to
implement lifting and fastening force control with safety and robustness. Loading experiments on
the snake arm and tension experiments on the mask-fastening mechanism have been performed to
investigate and validate the performances of the proposed anesthesia airway management robot.
Experiments on a mock person have also been employed to further verify the effectiveness and
reliability of the developed robot system. As an early study of an anesthesia airway management
robot, it was verified as a valid attempt to perform mask non-invasive positive pressure ventilation
technology by taking advantage of a robotic system.
Keywords: positive pressure ventilation; general anesthesia; medical robot
1. Introduction
At present, the establishment of an artificial airway is necessary for ventilation in
patients under general anesthesia [
1
]. Inserting a ventilator duct into the patient’s trachea
to establish an “artificial airway” is often used in general anesthesia operations. This is
known as intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV). IPPV could cause airway and
pharyngeal compression injuries, and increase medical risks [
2
]. In contrast, non-invasive
positive pressure ventilation (NPPV) can provide a reduced number of complications
related to mechanical ventilation compared with IPPV [
3
,
4
]. NPPV is usually applied to
awake patients, because patients are prone to experience pharyngeal airway obstruction
after losing consciousness [
5
]. If the jaw is raised into an appropriate posture by hands,
the patient’s airway can be kept unobstructed. In this condition, NPPV can be applied
to general anesthesia surgeries. However, satiated patients who are at risk of gastric
contents reflux are not suitable for these surgeries as the mask cannot isolate the trachea.
Additionally, the air pressure should be controlled in a suitable range to avoid gastric
distension [
6
]. Air leakage through the mouth is the leading cause of NPPV failure [
7
,
8
].
Thus, NPPV is only used as a temporary ventilation method during the induction of
general anesthesia [
9
,
10
]. In recent years, clinical studies on NPPV have attracted increasing
attention, especially in regard to the usage of robot technology.
The application of medical robots in the field of anesthesia has been extensively
reported [
11
,
12
]. The research directions mainly focus on the autonomous control of anes-
thesia depth [
13
,
14
]. Considering the advantage of NPPV, some studies have attempted
Sensors 2021, 21, 8144. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21238144 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
