Oh Baby! Contractions and Calculations
Measuring resistance of a do-it-yourself FSR from copper sheet scraps and conductive foam.Copyright 2022 Diane M. Walsh, University of Connecticut RET
Engineering is essential to our health! In this activity, students measure abdominal pressure using a force sensitive resistor and transmit the data to an Arduino microcontroller via Bluetooth. In addition, they use MIT App Inventor to create an app for an Android Smartphone or tablet that mimics how uterine contractions are displayed/charted on a fetal monitor during labor. On the Arduino side, students learn the relationship between physical pressure, voltage, resistance, and current; on the app side students practice computer science skills including sequence, iteration, and selection.
Biomedical engineers design medical devices and sensor to improve the care for both the mother and baby during childbirth. By adding Bluetooth and flexible sensors, patients can ambulate rather than being tethered to a fetal monitor. Traditional fetal monitors also typically use belted sensors that require readjustments when the mother changes positions. Biomedical engineers seek to make devices smaller and more flexible while also improving patient care.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Describe the relationship between force and resistance in a force sensitive resistor (FSR).
- Explain how electrical energy flows through a voltage divider circuit.
- Solve simple voltage-divider problems.
- Create exponential and logarithmic equations to model information provided by a component datasheet.
- Apply a force-resistance and/or force/voltage model to predict a force based on a given input.
- Discuss how uterine contractions are measured using a pressure sensor.
- Write an algorithm using sequence, selection, and iteration.