Comparing Classical and Fractional Order Control Strategies of a Cardiovascular Circulatory System Simulator

This paper compares two strategies, namely, feedback linearization (FBL) and classical proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller, as well as their fractional versions, for the control of a simulator of the human cardiovascular circulatory system (CVS) in the Matlab/Simulink environment. The simulator is based on a hydraulic model of the system, realizable in practice, in which muscular contraction of the left ventricle is modelled by a pump with piston (tank of variable volume depending on the position of the piston), so that a control strategy is needed to control the velocity of the piston in order to emulate the behaviour of the heart. Simulations are given to demonstrate, on the one hand, that all strategies have good tracking and hemodynamic performance and, on the other, that dysfunctions in the CVS can be emulated applying an appropriate control strategy that allows tracking the desired reference waveform. The final objective of this work is the construction of an experimental platform based on this simulator to test swimming robots of small dimensions that allows to emulate the conditions in which these robots would navigate in the human circulatory system.