Development of an Undergraduate Control Engineering Design Project: PID Control of Blood Glucose Levels in Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Subjects

Considerations in the development of a simulation-based (matlab/SIMULINK) undergraduate Control Engineering project are outlined. The main objective of the simulation-based project, which will run in parallel with the first part of the control course, is to further embed in the students, the basic concepts of modelling, feedback control, feedforward control and performance assessment of the controlled system. The `tuning' of the parameters of a proportional, integral and derivative (PID) controller to obtain a desired controlled performance is an important element of the project. The specific application considered is the post-prandial control of blood glucose levels in type I diabetes Mellitus subjects using insulin. Worldwide numbers of diabetes sufferers are steadily increasing around the world putting a strain on both healthcare resources and costs. Choosing an application of global significance does create an increased level of student engagement to the Control Engineering project.