NOVEL SUBOPTIMAL CONTROLLER FOR THE PENN STATE ELECTRIC VENTRICULAR ASSIST DEVICE.

An Electric Ventricular Assist Device (EVAD) converts electric power into cardiac output by moving a pusher plate against a flexible blood sac. The pusher plate, in the Penn State device, is driven by a brushless dc motor through a cam or a rollerscrew mechanism. The motion of the pusher plate is controlled through the driving voltage applied to the dc motor. This work considers a controller which minimizes the power consumption of the EVAD. Minimizing the power results in a reduced battery size and lowers the design specifications of the driving electronics. This paper summarizes the optimal control formulation, and presents the suboptimal control derivation. The performance of the suboptimal controller is evaluated via a computer simulation.