Improved robust performance in a system for automatic administration of a vasoactive drug

Abstract

The problem of automatic administration of vasoactive drugs to regulate mean arterial pressure in surgical and postsurgical patients can be considered as a setpoint tracking problem involving a system which is characterised by significant modelling uncertainty in the form of uncertain parameters, unmodelled dynamics and disturbances. Yet, specific levels of performance are required and patient safety must be guaranteed. As part of the development process of a novel Multiple-Model Adaptive Control (MMAC) architecture for this application, we have adopted a mixed-μ synthesis approach to controller design. Simulation results show that the new controllers are capable of improved disturbance rejection and robustness even in the face of large system delays and parametric uncertainty.