Automation of a portable extracorporeal circulatory support system with adaptive fuzzy controllers.

ABSTRACT

The presented work relates to the procedure followed for the automation of a portable extracorporeal circulatory support system. Such a device may help increase the chances of survival after suffering from cardiogenic shock outside the hospital, additionally a controller can provide of optimal organ perfusion, while reducing the workload of the operator. Animal experiments were carried out for the acquisition of haemodynamic behaviour of the body under extracorporeal circulation. A mathematical model was constructed based on the experimental data, including a cardiovascular model, gas exchange and the administration of medication. As the base of the controller fuzzy logic was used allowing the easy integration of knowledge from trained perfusionists, an adaptive mechanism was included to adapt to the patient's individual response. Initial simulations show the effectiveness of the controller and the improvements of perfusion after adaptation.