No label defined (Q4490249)

The author presents a control theoretic approach to the modelling and analysis of physiological systems. Starting with the obvious assumption that operation of physiological systems is based on a large number of feedback processes, the book offers a course for biomedical engineering students which enables to understand underlying regulation mechanisms. To make the book readable for both engineering oriented as well as life science or clinical-oriented students or researchers the author starts with a nonformal and very basic and intuitively acceptable introduction to control theory and signal processing. After the first chapter being a general introduction, the next five chapters are devoted to important issues of linear control theory including state-space and transfer function models, static analysis of closed-loop systems with application to regulation of cardiac output, glucose and ventilation, time-domain and frequency domain analysis of open-loop and closed-loop systems and stability analysis and its use in assessment of dynamic behaviour of chosen physiological systems. All the problems addressed in the chapters are richly illustrated by numerical examples performed in MATLAB and SIMULINK. The next part of the book is devoted to more complicated techniques related to parameter estimation and identification with special attention paid to closed-loop system identification, optimization methods and their use in the analysis of physiological control and adaptive control as well as in the nonlinear analysis of physiological systems including local stability, phase plane analysis, describing function method and other techniques of analysis of oscillations in cardiac, breathing and neural systems. This part of the book is also full of numerical examples and SIMULINK procedures used to find their solutions. The book builds a bridge over the gap between control engineers even those engaged in biomedical modelling but usually very mathematically oriented, and life scientists eager to use control theoretic tools but afraid of their formalism.