Feedback control applications in artificial hearts

Artificial hearts are a commercially interesting technology which relies heavily on feedback control, particularly with centrifugal pump implementations using magnetic bearings. Several examples of feedback control in these pumps were explored in this paper, including parameter estimation for position sensing, observer based motor commutation, position control of the rigid impeller subjected to highly uncertain fluid dynamic forces, and pump discharge rate regulation (physiological control) to achieve uncertain objectives (due to insufficient experience) using difficult measurements on an extremely complex plant. Such problems are typical of an expanding range of biomedical applications for automatic control.