Open Source Syringe Pump with 3D Printing

Suggested Team Size: 2-3 students (3D printing experience is good to have)

Project Description:
The "Building Open Source Syringe Pump with 3D Printing" project is an innovative initiative that combines open-source hardware principles with 3D printing technology to create an affordable and customizable syringe pump and open-source software principles for diverse applications in healthcare, research, and beyond. This project aims to develop a reliable syringe pump design, building upon an existing open-source design from GitHub, and make it freely available to the global community.

Project Objectives:
The primary objectives of the "Building Open Source Syringe Pump with 3D Printing" project are as follows:

1. Research on Existing Syringe Pumps: Conduct comprehensive research on existing commercial and open-source syringe pumps, analyzing their features, functionalities, and supported interfaces. Identify gaps and opportunities for improvement to propose new features that can enhance the performance and usability of the open-source syringe pump.

2. Adapt Existing Open-Source Design: Utilize and adapt an existing open-source syringe pump design from GitHub as the foundation for this project, ensuring that it aligns with the goals of affordability, accessibility, and customization. An example GitHub project: https://github.com/manimino/OpenSyringePump . Another example for building syringe pump: https://chemrxiv.org/engage/api-gateway/chemrxiv/assets/orp/resource/ite...

3. 3D Printing Compatibility: Enhance the design to incorporate 3D-printed components, making it cost-effective and accessible for users with access to 3D printers.

4. Precise and Reliable Functionality: Ensure the syringe pump is capable of delivering precise and reliable fluid dispersions for a variety of applications, including medical treatment, laboratory research, and automated processes.

5. User-Friendly Interface: Develop intuitive software and user interfaces for controlling and monitoring the syringe pump, making it user-friendly and accessible to both experts and beginners. Additionally, create a language or file format for programming the syringe pump software to inject predefined amounts at predefined time instances automatically, enhancing its automation capabilities.

6. Integration with Molecular Communication Testbed: Seamlessly integrate the hardware and software components of the syringe pump into our existing molecular communication testbed, ensuring compatibility and functionality within this specialized environment. Conduct tests in the Molecular Communication Network (MCN) testbed and collect data to evaluate the syringe pump's performance in a real-world molecular communication context.

7. Cost-Effective Materials: Select materials and components that are readily available and cost-effective to keep the overall project budget-friendly.

8. Calibration and Accuracy: Provide guidelines and procedures for calibrating the syringe pump to ensure accurate and consistent fluid delivery.

9. Documentation and Community Support: Create comprehensive documentation, user guides, and an online community forum to assist users with building, troubleshooting, and enhancing the syringe pump.

The "Building Open Source Syringe Pump with 3D Printing" project aims to democratize access to syringe pump technology, leveraging an existing open-source design as the starting point. By conducting thorough research on existing syringe pumps and proposing new features based on this research, this project ensures that the resulting open-source syringe pump meets and exceeds user expectations in terms of functionality, usability, and versatility.