Abstract
For use in patients with severe forms of heart disease for which no surgical repair is possible, development of artificial hearts has many importance in point of economics, medical and industrial applications. To provide a sufficient cardiac output to the physiological demands of circulatory systems is the objective of control systems for an electromechanical artificial heart, which is based on the stable controller design for the motor in the artificial heart. In this paper, an implantable microcontroller-based brushless DC motor control system with the implantability, reliability, and stability is introduced. The developed control system for the artificial heart has the following advantages: (1) It is possible to be implanted in a body by realizing the fundamental functions such as a motor speed detection, proportional-intergral control, timer, and PWM generation through a software programming. (2) Thus, the power consumed in the controller is reduced. (3) The reliability and stability are improved through the reduction of electronic parts and line connetions at the controller. The performance of the artificial hearts and control system developed was evaluated through a series of mock circulatory experiments and a reliability test for one and half years. A sheep with the artificial heart and control system was survived for three days.
