ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the safety and security conception of a ventricular assist device (VAD) design. It is very important to understand that safety and security are generally more important than the functional characteristics of a software system. Nowadays, it is known that most serious accidents involving a variety of systems, such as oil platforms, aircraft, or industrial process plants, could be avoided if they had control devices specifically designed to maintain safety during the occurrence of malfunctions. On the other hand, complications are observed in carrying out the control of remote systems in which it is possible to have no guarantee of monitoring in real time, as in the case of space probes or exploration robots. In this context, both difficulties can be encountered in controlling the functioning of a VAD that performs the function of assisting the pumping of blood to the circulatory system of a patient with heart failure. This type of device, when used for destination therapy, must present a high level of safety, since, in case of failure, the risk of death is imminent. On the other hand, the current systems must have a high level of autonomy, since the behavioral and physiological characteristics of a patient are constantly changing and directly affect the way in which the interaction between the VAD and the patient’s cardiovascular system should occur. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve the design of autonomous and secure control systems for VADs. The purpose of this chapter is to apply mechatronic concepts to the design of a VAD control system, considering the signals that indicate the occurrence of failures. This kind of application increases in size and complexity each day, and the biggest challenge in software engineering is to ensure the reliability of these systems.
