Modeling And Control Of An Extracorporeal Heart Assist Device

Abstract Heart assist devices provide mechanical circulatory support for patients with end-stage heart failure. Extracorporeal heart assist devices are applied to adult and pediatric patients in the case of uni- and biventricular assistance. Modern driving units provide more mobility what is an immense benefit to the quality of life of the patients. The treated heart assist device in this article is the EXCOR system (Berlin Heart GmbH, Germany). This device is pneumatically operated by a piston drive. Pump assistance for the native heart of the patient should be provided by an automatic control system. This could be achieved by the control of the piston movement and the enclosed air mass in the pneumatic system. The model based design of a control system for the extracorporeal assist device is described in this paper.