UNIVERSITY OF GONDAR

INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

HOSTING ORGANIZATION: ALERT HOSPITAL

PROJECT TITLE: WEIGHT MEASURMENT SYSTEM FOR

INFANT INCUBATOR

PREPARED BY ID NUMBER
EDEN SAMUEL 01208/10
HAWI BORESSA 00414/10
REDIET HABTU 01207/10

Submitted to: - Department of biomedical

engineering, institute of technology, University of Gondar

21 March, 2022 GC

Gondar, Ethiopia
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all, we would like to thank our almighty GOD for helping us from the beginning to last
point of our steps. Then, we would like to give gratitude to the university of Gondar institute of
technology, department of biomedical engineering for giving us this project to develop an
innovational skill. Next, we would like to thank all ALERT Hospital biomedical department teams
for their guidance in acquiring practical knowledge. After that, we thank our advisors
Mr.Aschalew Ashenafi and Mr. Matiwos Tekalign for their consistent guidance. Lastly, we thank
our fellow intern of Jimma University students.

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 ABSTRACT

Most neonatal infants face complications due to the environmental alterations and often challenged
into serious conditions that could also be fatal. This paper tries to explain the system made to
combat these exposures by helping one of the risks causing medical procedure take place without
ejecting the infants out of their safe environment which is the incubator. So we gave solution to it
by making a digital weight sensor by using a microcontroller to control the hardware devices, an
ADC convertor module and the load cell with LCD display from the reading purpose. For the sake
of the assurance of the weight there is a calibration system that sets all its count to zero and calibrate
with a known weight whenever checking of the machine is required. And since it’s designed to be
under the mattress of the infants it will help a lot in their safe environmental protection and daily
monitoring at the same time. The design recommends improvements in the area of infant weighing
so that alteration of environment even for the short period of time. Thus, preventing this exposure
the health and monitoring could be performed effectively.

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Table of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ v

ACRONYMS ......................................................................................................... vi

CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................... 1

1. BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT ................................................................ 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT ........................................................................... 3

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT ................................................................. 4

1.3.1 General Objective ................................................................................... 4

1.3.2 Specific Objective ................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................... 5

2. LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................................... 5

2.1 A low cost, color coded, hand held spring scale accurately categorizes birth
weight in low resource settings ........................................................................... 5

2.2 Remote weight monitoring system for infant incubator ................................ 6

CHAPTER THREE................................................................................................. 8

3. METHODOLOGY.............................................................................................. 8

CHAPTER FOUR ................................................................................................. 10

4. MODELING AND SYSTEM DESIGN ........................................................... 10

4.1 HARDWARE COMPONENTS USED ...................................................... 10

4.1.1Arduino Uno .......................................................................................... 10

4.1.2 Load cell ............................................................................................... 11

4.1.3 HX711 ................................................................................................... 11

4.1.4 Jumper wires ......................................................................................... 12

4.1.5 Capacitor ............................................................................................... 13

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 4.1.6 Resistor ................................................................................................. 13

4.1.7 Transistor .............................................................................................. 14

4.1.8. Push button .......................................................................................... 14

4.2. SOFTWARE COMPONENTS .................................................................. 15

4.2.1 Proteus .................................................................................................. 15

CHAPTER FIVE................................................................................................... 16

5. RESULT AND CONCLUSION ....................................................................... 16

5.1 RESULT ...................................................................................................... 16

5.2 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 19

5.3 RECOMMENDATION .................................................................................. 20

References ............................................................................................................. 21

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 LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 infant weight scale: - This is the infant incubator which is found in ALERT
hospital. ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Figure 2 block diagram of weight measurement system for infant incubator ........................... 8
Figure 3 Flowchart of the calibration process of weighting scale ............................................... 9
Figure 4 Arduino Uno ................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 5 load cell ........................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 6 HX711 ............................................................................................................................. 12
Figure 7 jumper wires .................................................................................................................. 12
Figure 8 capacitor ......................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 9 resistor ........................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 10 transistors .................................................................................................................... 14
Figure 11 push button ................................................................................................................... 15
Figure 12 Proteus simulation ....................................................................................................... 15
Figure 13 result of the simulation ................................................................................................ 16
Figure 14 Proteus simulation model ............................................................................................ 17
Figure 15 initiating count ............................................................................................................. 17
Figure 16 actual weight ................................................................................................................ 18

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 ACRONYMS
ADC Analog To Digital Convertor
LCD Liquid Crystal Display
NC Normally Closed
NICU Neonatal Infant Care Unit
NO Normally Open
PCB Printed Circuit Board
SIDS Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

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 CHAPTER ONE

1. BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Incubator is machine that is used to give extra aid and support to infants in order to achieve the
most preferable environment and continual monitoring in NICU mostly. It’s applied with a
combination with other supportive machines such as the infusion pump and oximeter.

There are many reasons that babies administer to incubators; babies born premature(birth is one
that occurs before the start of the 37th week of pregnancy) require additional time to develop or
mature especially their lungs and other vital organs (since most of their organs such as their eyes,
eardrums are sensitive they could easily be damaged permanently when exposed to normal light
and sound), jaundice(yellowing of a baby’s skin and eyes, Effects of gestational
diabetes(developing of high blood sugar levels during pregnancy), Maternal chorioamnionitis
(when there are bacteria in the membranes that surround the baby, the amniotic fluid, or the
umbilical cord0, If a baby needs to have surgery for a complication following their birth they may
need to be incubated, infants experienced trauma during delivery, babies born extremely early will
not have had the time to develop fat just under the skin and will need help to keep themselves
warm and toasty, underweight babies or very small since they can’t be able to stay warm without
the aid of incubators and face hardships in various vital functions of their organs and if infants face
complications following their birth they’ll need to be in a safer environment.

A research held in 5 different hospitals in Ethiopia from July 1, 2016 to May 31, 2018 observed
4919 preterm infants and 3852 of them were admitted to NICU. By 28 days of post-natal age
1109(29%) of the admitted infants to the NICU died. Complete diagnostic autopsy was done in
441 (45%) and minimally invasive tissue sampling was done in 126(11%) of the NICU infant
deaths. The main or primary causes of the deaths were respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis,
pneumonia therefore it’s obvious that neonatal infants should be in a strictly controlled
environment to help the mature their organs and be safe. [1]

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So incubators are designed to provide a controlled environment for infants until the vital organs
develop. It is an environment that allows the necessary adjustment to achieve the ideal temperature,
necessary amount of oxygen, humidity and light. It helps to reduce infections, protection from
allergies, excessive noise, attacks of germs, light levels that might cause harm and protect their
skin from losing too much water and cracking. It also enables to monitor the infants 24/7 while
allowing several medical procedures such as giving medications and fluids by their veins where
medical support is required for the infant.

In ALERT hospital there are incubators which are currently functional in the NICU but all
incubators use separate weight scale for the infants which let the infants to expose unsafe
environment.

Figure 1 infant weight scale: - This is the infant incubator which is found in ALERT hospital.

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 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
There were several neonatal infants getting support in ALERT hospital incubators. Even though
the neonatal infants should be in a secured and safe environment, they are taken out of the incubator
when the doctors want to weight them and are put in a weighting scale then placed back to their
incubators. This action will give rise to complications on the health of the neonatal infant due to
the interruption of support from the ideal environment when weighing them, this could take a
duration from 5-10 minutes depending on the infant condition and the nurse which may lead to
exhaustion for the nurse to do this over and over again and infants also exposed to the unsafe
environment during this procedure. And more likely there is an increased risk of sudden infant
death syndrome (SIDS). Although the actual cause of SIDS is unknown the infants often die in
their cribs that are why sometimes it’s called cribs death. And there is no recommendation that
tells when to weigh the infants that’s why weighing the infants outside the incubator has high risk
of SIDS. So to overcome these problem we came up with an incubator that has built in weighing
scale.

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 1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

1.3.1 General Objective

 Design Weight Measurement System For Infant Incubator

1.3.2 Specific Objective

 To design an easy weight scale for infants incubator inside their womb-like ideal
environment
 To reduce a neonatal infant complication
 To reduce time taken for weighing procedure

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 CHAPTER TWO

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Among the daily routine medical procedures taken place in the NICU room the weighing of the
infants is one risk causing procedure since the weighing of the infants is carried outside the
incubators. [2]

2.1 A low cost, color coded, hand held spring scale accurately
categorizes birth weight in low resource settings
This design aims to determine the accuracy of a low cost, spring calibrated, hand held scale in
classifying newborns into three weight categories (⩾2500 g, 2000–2499 g, <2000 g). To address
the limitations and to provide first level health workers with a low cost device for classifying infant
birth weight and thus, mortality risk a refined version of the hand held scale (Birth Weigh III) was
developed.

It is lightweight, portable Birth Weigh III scale is handheld and composed of only four main,
inexpensive (e.g. tempered wire, plastic molding based on acrylonitrile butadiene styrene
polymers), easily assembled parts to assure reliability, manufacturing simplicity, and reduced cost.
Full scale production cost of the device is thus likely to be less. A stair stepped indicator is fitted
to the device to allow both tactile and visual delineation of three categories of weight.

The method they used and the procedure is that, after the workers obtained informed consent from
the mother, they place the infant in a sturdy cloth sling with two reinforced holes through which
the hook at the end of the spring scale was attached. The worker raised the infant secured in the
sling and observed the level of the indicator button at the top of the scale. If the button remained
below the top level of the plastic cylinder, the worker classified the infant as having a weight of
⩾2500 g. If the first step on the indicator button could be seen or felt with the worker's thumb, the
infant was classified into the 2000–2499 g category. If the entire indicator button was exposed or
detected by feel, the weight class was recorded as <2000 g. The steps on the indicator button were
color and shape coded, that is neither vision nor literacy was required for use of the scale.

5
As Statistical analysis shows gold standard birth weight categories were created from the
continuous weight measurements recorded using the digital scale. And it was approved by the
Nepal Health Research Council, the Committee on Human Research of the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the PATH Human Subjects Protection Committee.

Although the weight scale they used is good problem solver but it also has some problems such as
the actual infant weight can’t be known but the range of the weight and using this weight scale it
is hard to know the infant condition except to know whether the infant is under weight, overweight
or intermediate.
And it is exhausting condition to pick up every time the infant and weigh him which
leads to the nurse to be exhausted [3].

2.2 Remote weight monitoring system for infant incubator

This is one of the recent designs of infant incubator that improved the weight monitoring system.
It is used to display the weight of the infants and send SMS following up the continuous
monitoring. The components used are chosen by far with their sensitivity, their relative cost and
their asset in continual monitoring of the weighing procedure.

This incubator uses force sensing element as a sensing element which is a load cell, active filter
for signal conditioning and an Arduino R3 to process the signal and a GSM SIM900 module to
make a remote monitoring of the measurement result. It has three main parts a load sensing element
which is a strain gauge based load cell the load cell will convert the force from the load (infant)
into electrical signal then passing through the signal conditioning circuit that consists if low pass
filter and amplifier to eliminate any noise and make the signal suitable to read and processed by
microcontroller.

There are two methods applied to perform the procedure first it displays the weight on the LCD
after it has been weighed and the second is that it sends SMS using the GSM module by a set of
interval at a predetermined schedule. The experiment was conducted using a movable doll which
is more active than actual premature infant. Its weight when in movement and when stationary in
stationary condition was measured.

6
Each condition was measured for 5 seconds. The performance of the SIM GSM 900module was
observed by sending the measured weight data to the phone numbers via SMS. A doll alone and
the same doll a combined by a 500g of load were used in this test with the same network provider.

In this paper, the effect of moving the load on remote weight monitoring system for simple baby
incubator has been observed for laboratory scale. The results show that the output signal of load
cell when measuring the moving doll generates a periodic signal. The periodic signal is suppressed
by using the active low-pass filter. Therefore, the measurements are not affected by the movement
of the load on the system. Furthermore, the GSM SIM900 is able to send the data containing the
weight of baby simulator weight. However, although the proposed system is able to operate in real
time, many tests should be conducted before this system can be applied in practical application in
the rural area in Indonesia [4].

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 CHAPTER THREE

3. METHODOLOGY
As the infants exposed to the environment they are challenged to various infections and
complications such as the conditions stated above so there should have been a way to weigh the
infant’s weight and still make them in the safe environment. And the solution was to make a digital
weighing scale that could be applied to the incubators in the incubators and combat the high risk
causing 5-10-minute procedure.

So in order to overcome the problem a weight measurement system with pressure against load cell
method is used.

It consists three main parts the load sensing element, electrical system and the micro controller
unit. It worked by changing the force of motion into electrical signals. The load cell implemented
was easy to access and relatively at low cost. Its Arduino Uno R3 was applied as a micro controller
unit which best fitted for its simple usability and power consumption.

Figure 2 block diagram of weight measurement system for infant incubator

As the above block diagram shows the system works by installing the load cell under the baby
mattress, this changes the strain gauge resistance in the load cell as the infant load is exerted on it.

As the infant is premature or has small amount of weight the load cell which is a piezoelectric
material used to change the load resistance strain gauge to a given voltage gives the voltage as an
output voltage of the strain gauge. The weight of the load is directly proportional to the resistance
also to the voltage changed by the load cell.

8
And since the weight of the load is small the voltage is in small amount of voltage so it then gets
filtered and amplified by the circuit to match the working voltage of the Arduino Uno R3 so that
the analog signal will be converted to digital signal. After being processed weight information is
then displayed on the LCD. So the device weighs the infants without they need to expose outside
of their womb-like environment.

Figure 3 Flowchart of the calibration process of weighting scale

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 CHAPTER FOUR

4. MODELING AND SYSTEM DESIGN

4.1 HARDWARE COMPONENTS USED

4.1.1Arduino Uno
Arduino is an open-source microcontroller used for processing the data and controlling
components which can be easily programmed, erased and reprogrammed at any instant of time.
Introduced in 2005 the Arduino platform was designed to provide an inexpensive and easy way
for hobbyists, students and professionals to create devices that interact with their environment
using sensors and actuators. Based on simple microcontroller boards, it is an open-source
computing platform that is used for constructing and programming electronic devices. It is also
capable of acting as a mini computer just like other microcontrollers by taking inputs and
controlling the outputs for a variety of electronics devices. So we thought of using this micro
controller to receive the analog signal from the sensor which is the load cell in our case and give
the processed output (weight measurement) on the LCD and additionally perform the calibration
feature. [5]

Figure 4 Arduino Uno

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4.1.2 Load cell

A load cell is a device that converts a force or load into a measurable output. Load cells can come
in multiple styles including hydraulic, pneumatic, strain gage, piezoelectric, and capacitance. The
general-purpose load cell, as the name implies, is designed to be utilitarian in nature. These
versatile load cells are commonly used for calibration references, manual applications, and
applications that require slower cycling. [6]

Figure 5 load cell

It is an element of strain measurement. relating to weight measurement as a load cell is applied to

the strain gauge that causes the gauge to strain a certain amount and output a voltage proportional
to the applied load, using this load cells is favorable due use to their linearity, cost effectiveness
and their ease of implementation. So we insisted on this solution. For solving this problem, we
designed a digital weight balance that can be added on the existing incubators. We tried to use this
load cell that can detect pressure or weight applied.

4.1.3 HX711
HX711 is a precision 24-bit analog to-digital converter (ADC) designed for weigh scales and
industrial control applications to interface directly with a bridge sensor These outputs are difficult
to handle directly by controllers, so we can use HX711 IC which takes these voltage signals and
provide standard digital values which can be used by a microcontroller.

It was used to amplify the signal from the load cell since it is in millivolts reading.
The chip has integrated preamplifier specifically to handle these low voltages.

11
 Figure 6 HX711

It used as amplifier in the weight scale because this library was found to be the easiest and most
stable to implement. It can be powered anywhere between 2.7-5.5V. The HX711 is easily wired to
Arduino using any two analog pins and the load cell is also wired to the HX711.

4.1.4 Jumper wires

In any electronic circuitry wires are the conductive connections between elements in contact.
Theoretically, they have zero resistance and provide perfect connections. On the breadboard,
they look like nice colored jumper wires.

Figure 7 jumper wires

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4.1.5 Capacitor
A capacitor is a device used to store electrical charge and electrical energy. The capacitor is made
of two close conductors (usually plates) that are separated by a dielectric material. The plates
accumulate electric charge when connected to power source. One plate accumulates negative
charge. The purpose of these capacitor in our project is to protect the circuit from being damage.

Figure 8 capacitor

4.1.6 Resistor
Resistors are used in virtually all electronic circuits and many electrical ones. As their name
indicates resist the flow of electricity and this function is key to the operation most circuits.
A resistor is a passive two terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a
circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels,
to divide voltages, bias active elements, and terminate transmission lines, among other uses.

Figure 9 resistor

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4.1.7 Transistor
A transistor is a type of a semiconductor device that can be used to both conduct and insulate
electric current or voltage. It is developed in the year 1947 by three American physicists John
Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley It acts as a switch and an amplifier. It is a
miniature device that is used to control or regulate the flow of electronic signals. It is one of the
most important inventions in the history of science and one of the key components in most of the
electronic devices that are present today.

Figure 10 transistors

4.1.8. Push button

It is a kind of control switch appliance that is widely used. The push button switch can complete
basic controls such as start, stop, forward and reverse rotation, speed change and interlock. Usually
each push button switch has two pairs of contacts. It consists of a pull up resistor which possess
pair of contacts consists of a NO contact and a NC contact. When the button is pressed, the two
pairs of contacts act simultaneously, the NC contact is disconnected, and the NO contact is
closed. So here when the push button is pressed the normally closed circuit will open up and
reverse the execution of the code to calibration.

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 Figure 11 push button

4.2. SOFTWARE COMPONENTS

4.2.1 Proteus

The Proteus is electronic circuit design software. It includes a schematic capture, simulation, PCB
(Printed Circuit Board) Layout modules. It has gone through many versions, the recent versions
being Proteus 8.6, 8.7 and then the latest version Proteus 8.8. Proteus 8.8 software with powerful
new features and completely breakthrough compared to the previous versions. We used 8.17
Proteus version.

Figure 12 Proteus simulation

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 CHAPTER FIVE

5. RESULT AND CONCLUSION

5.1 RESULT
Since software was used for simulating and testing this design work, every electrical connection
is included in the Proteus design and they were tested for their functionality. This is the overall
representation of the simulation of our program in a PCB.

Figure 13 result of the simulation

16
Figure 14 Proteus simulation model

Figure 15 initiating count

17
Figure 16 actual weight

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 5.2 CONCLUSION
As presented in the research above from a large number of neonatal infants 29% they died. Due to
various exposures that could be combated so the system, the pressure against load cell system is
suitable to measure the infants weight inside the incubator. So that the rise of complications and
risks could be discard. The proposed weight monitoring system had a linear relationship with the
object weight (the infant in this case) within the given character of the load cell at the experiment.
It is very suitable to use and simple system that can be applied or implemented very easily.

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 5.3 RECOMMENDATION

Even though we have tried to put some amendments to meet our specific goal, there
are some recommendations that we would like to see on the incubators someday.
The sensitivity of the weighing throughout the whole mattress isn’t even so if a
more sensitive design could be implemented so as to have the weight of the infant
accurately weighing them throughout the whole mattress would be more preferable
and applicable. The design of our weighing scale isn’t sufficiently fast so if it could
have less delay it would be more preferable.

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