ELEC2041Y - Microprocessor and Control

Assignment 1 Insulin Delivery System

Background

Control system methods have been applied to the biomedical eld to create an implanted insulin delivery system for diabetics. When food is eaten and digested, sugars, mainly glucose, are absorbed into the bloodstream. Normally, the pancreas secretes insulin into the bloodstream to metabolize the sugar. A diabetics pancreas secretes insucient insulin to metabolize blood sugar; blood sugar levels can thus become high enough to cause damage to the bodys organs. One solution to this problem is for the diabetic to take one injection of insulin each day. In Figure , a typical blood sugar and insulin concentration histories for a day are shown for a normal person. In Figure 1, the blood sugar and insulin concentration histories for a day are shown for a diabetic who takes one insulin injection in the morning. Notice that blood sugar is often higher than normal, but the sugar concentration is far less than would be the case if no insulin had been injected. A higher dose of insulin could be taken in the morning to counteract the low insulin residual after dinner, but blood sugar concentration might be driven unacceptably low in the morning (hypoglycaemia), causing weakness, trembling and possibly fainting. Three injections a day, one before each meal, are generally infeasible due to their damage to the veins and skin tissue.

Figure 1: Typical blood sugar and insulin concentrations

ELEC2041Y - Microprocessor and Control

Method

One automatic control system of interest consists of a tiny insulin reservoir, control motor, and pump that is implanted in the body below the diaphragm. This electronic pancreas delivers insulin into the peritoneum using pre-programmed commands intended to establish insulin levels close to the levels of a normal individual. The pump runs at higher rates after meals than otherwise. The diabetic must time meals to complement the behaviour of the implanted system, but injections are required only every few weeks to rell the insulin reservoir. Systems of this type have operated for years without malfunction. This method of control as shown in Figure 2 is open-loop, since the electronic pancreas does not sense the blood sugar level to determine whether or not to release insulin in the body. A signal generator is programmed to drive the motor pump in such a way that the insulin delivery rate approximates a desired delivery rate iD (t).

Figure 2: Implanted open-loop insulin delivery system Figure 3 shows an approximate desired insulin rate iD (t) in cm3 /s for one-third day, beginning with a meal. Figure shows a similar function: i(t) = Ateat u(t). (1) A good approximation of iD (t) by i(t) occurs when the constants A and a are selected so that i(t) is maximum at t = 3600 s, as is iD (t), and so that the areas under the two curves are equal, with value of 0.17 cm3 .

Figure 3: Approximating the required insulin rate with a time-weighted exponential Given the parameters of the motor pump are K = 2 106 cm3 /volt s and = 4 s, the pre-programmed motor drive signal r(t) can then be determined.

ELEC2041Y - Microprocessor and Control

Expected Outcomes and Report

This assignment will require you to apply your knowledge of control systems theory so far to a simple practical problem. It will also require you to familiarise yourself with MATLAB, read relevant help documentation and research the subject to use suitable commands to check and validate your design. Like all programming languages, you should not expect all your commands to work at once. Note that this assignment is an individual assignment. Any form of plagiarism will not be tolerated. After performing this assignment, you are expected to demonstrate 1. a clear and thorough understanding of the problem at hand. 2. an appreciation of the need of computational tools to solve and simulate control problems. 3. that you have developed a good grasp of the software tools and computation necessary to solve real-world control problems and that you are able to present your results in a clear, unambiguous and professional manner. Your report should: 1. clearly reect that you have met all expected outcomes iterated before.
A 2. be neat, tidy, and typed (using L TEX if possible). All gures and plots generated using MATLAB should be labeled properly.

3. include all calculations that are necessary for you to arrive at your solution. 4. include all codes and commands used in MATLAB.

LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSION OF REPORT: 1st FEB 2013 NO REPORT WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THAT DATE
Dr S Z Sayed Hassen Level 4, Engineering Tower Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering