Publication Date
6-1-2023
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Biomimetics
Volume
8
Issue
2
DOI
10.3390/biomimetics8020190
Abstract
According to the 2018 National Immunization Survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 83.9% of the breastfeeding mothers in the United States have used a breast pump at least once. However, the majority of existing products use a vacuum-only mechanism to extract milk. This causes common breast injuries such as nipple soreness, breast-tissue damage, and lactation complications after pumping. The objective of this work was to develop a bio-inspired breast pump prototype, named as SmartLac8, that can mimic infant suckling patterns. The input vacuum pressure pattern and compression forces are inspired from term infants’ natural oral suckling dynamics captured in prior clinical experiments. Open-loop input–output data are used to perform system identification for two different pumping stages that facilitates controller design for closed-loop stability and control. A physical breast pump prototype with soft pneumatic actuators and custom piezoelectric sensors was successfully developed, calibrated, and tested in dry lab experiments. Compression and vacuum pressure dynamics were successfully coordinated to mimic the infant’s feeding mechanism. Experimental data on sucking frequency and pressure on the breast phantom were consistent with clinical findings.
Keywords
breast pump, oral-feeding mechanism, piezoelectric sensors, soft robotic
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Recommended Citation
Yuying Li, Marlenne Valadez Lozano, David Peña, Ish Kumar Gulati, and Lin Jiang. "SmartLact8: A Bio-Inspired Robotic Breast Pump for Customized and Comfort Milk Expression" Biomimetics (2023). https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics8020190
