Anesthesia can be administered automatically by a control system. For certain operations, such as brain and eye surgery, involuntary muscle movements can be disastrous. To ensure adequate operating conditions for the surgeon, muscle relaxant drugs, which block involuntary muscle movements, are administered.
A conventional method used by anesthesiologists for muscle relaxant administration is to inject a bolus dose whose size is determined by experience and to inject supplements as required. However, an anesthesiologist may sometimes fail to maintain a steady level of relaxation, resulting in a large drug consumption by the patient. Significant improvements may be achieved by introducing the concept of automatic control, which results in a considerable reduction in the total relaxant drug consumed [19]. A model of the anesthesia process is shown in Figure DP8.4. Select a gain K so that the bandwidth of the closed-loop system is maximized while Mpω ≤ 1.5. Determine the bandwidth attained for your design.