Stryker Corporation is a medical technology company that is looking for a system to track the end of the lifetime of bur guards produced by the company [1] . We are researching three different technologies that can be used as potential solutions to Stryker’s problem. The final deliverable will be three proof of concepts that will allow Stryker to track the use of the bur guards to ensure safety and prevent the bur guard from failing during use.
The three proof of concepts that we are carrying through with developing is serialization, mechanical, and FPGA temperature sensing. The serialization method will utilize either RFID or QR code technology to track the surgical cases and sterilizations the bur guard has gone through. The mechanical method will count how many insertions have been completed into the end effector. The FPGA temperature sensing method will track the thermal profile of the bearings in the bur guard while in operation to look for thermal abnormalities. If the temperature reaches a threshold that is deemed unsafe, the bur guard will be deemed no longer safe for use. Once these concepts are fully developed, they will be presented to Stryker. We will then determine what concept is most practical based on our testing and development together.
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