SUBOPTIMAL CONTROLLER FOR THE PENN STATE EVAD: THEORY AND IMPLEMENTATION.

The development of a suboptimal controller for the Penn State electric ventricular assist device (EVAD) is addressed. The controller reconstructs the open loop input voltage by multiplying the measured pusher plate position and an equivalent gain function. The gain function is calculated such that the differences between the suboptimal and optimal values of the consumed electric energy are minimized. The authors introduce the theory of optimal and suboptimal controllers, and describe the implementation of the suboptimal controller on the Penn State EVAD. Currently, there are discrepancies between the model and the system performances. The causes of the obserbed discrepancies are under investigation.