Adaptive control of infusion pump for Type-I diabetes control using a self-tuning regulator

Type-I diabetes is an incurable disease where the body cannot utilize the glucose in the blood due to the destruction of the beta pancreatic cell of the liver, resulting in complications and often serious damage to the human body. Treatment must therefore be provided in which insulin is delivered externally to remove the excess glucose concentration, either through conventional regime such as oral insulin intake or using a flexible insulin regime such as insulin pump therapy. The latter is a preferred form of ldquopersonalized medicinerdquo which provides more flexibility to patients through usage of fast-acting insulin and provision for real-time continuous glucose monitoring. These features allow a user to make daily decisions on the amount of insulin to be delivered. To provide better insulin management and to reduce the need for human supervision, it is of interest to implement a control algorithm in the insulin pump to automate the delivery process. The control algorithm should adapt to the glucose metabolic rate and determine the appropriate amount of insulin to be delivered into the body. In this undertaking, a self-tuning regulator (STR) is devised to realize this automation, and is designed and validated using a very accurate simulation model of the glucose metabolic process of both normal and diabetic patients. Approach and experimental results are presented.