Local Robotic Team Building Portable Ventilators

CHICAGO (CBS)-- A local robotics team is making portable ventilators to help in the fight against COVID-19.

FIRST FTC Team 8728 Bionic Wolves is using pre-existing robotics equipment to build the ventilators in up to three hours.

Kenny Bae, a physics teacher at Wolcott College Prep in Chicago, mentors the robotics team in an organization called FIRST that has over 79,000 teams globally.

"Our students can potentially save lives," he said.

Bae said the design is inspired by, and comparable to, the MIT team Emergency Ventilator and the group is seeking FDA Emergency Authorization Use approval.