Case Demcon

Designing a Respiration Detector for Image Guided
Biopsy
In this company case, a project that is performed at Demcon will be investigated. Students are invited to tackle a problem in small teams, as they would at Demcon. The different stages of a design process are visited:
- What are the customer requirements?
- What are the system requirements?
- What are the candidate design concepts?
- How can we evaluate different concepts?
- How to build a proof of principle?

Project Description
One of Demcon’s areas of focus is medical robotics. In recent years, biopsy procedures have been under extensive attention, as they are usually exhaustive for individuals under the test. Needle Positioning System (NPS), is a robotic arm developed by Demcon in collaboration with University of Twente, that tackles this problem in a CT guided biopsy procedure.

In the Demcon case, first the conventional biopsy procedure is explained. Then it is elaborated how NPS can contribute to a faster and more precise biopsy. This device is clinically proved to be useful for totally sedated patients. As a further development of the NPS system, solutions for non-sedated patients are investigated. In particular, students are challenged to design a device to detect the respiration of the patient. To achieve this, students will be encouraged to think of solutions in the broadest sense possible, and exchange ideas to get the best out of everybody’s knowledge and expertise in the team. This closely resembles the way of working at Demcon, where we work in diverse and multidisciplinary teams to achieve the best possible solution, while not being afraid of diving into new/unknown subjects.

The different solutions and challenges that participants come up with will be shared and discussed, after which the Demcon solutions – the results of the actual project – will be shared. Engineers from Demcon will present the case, answer questions, and discuss alternative solutions.