Modelling Optimization and Control of Biomedical Systems

Part B: Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Glucose Regulation

Stamatina Zavitsanou, Athanasios Mantalaris, Michael C. Georgiadis, and Efstratios N. Pistikopoulos

5.b Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Glucose Regulation

5.b.1 Glucose–Insulin System: Typical Control Problem

T1DM is a lifelong disease, and therefore its treatment with exogenous insulin should have the minimal impact on the patient’s lifestyle. It is necessary to develop novel drug delivery techniques that suggest a structure of drug administration which ensures the therapeutic efficacy and safety of the patient, and take into consideration the patient’s comfort and convenience. Motivated by the challenge to improve the living standard of a diabetic patient, the idea of an artificial pancreas that mimics the endocrine functionality of a healthy pancreas has been well established in the scientific society. See Section 5.a.1.1, “The concept of the artificial pancreas,” for discussion.

The blood glucose–insulin system can be formulated as a typical control system. The plant is the glucoregulatory system itself, the manipulated variable is insulin and the controlled variable is blood glucose concentration, as presented in Figure 5.b.1. The system undergoes external disturbances such as meal consumption, exercise, illness, stress and so on. The two fundamental components of a control system are the model and the control strategy.

Figure 5.b.1 Model‐based control structure.

Several control methodologies have been suggested in ...