By: Kushal Khadka, Nishek Jha, Saroj Adhikari, Milan Bhusal
Event: Locus Fest 2023, Pulchowk Campus, IoE
Category: Engineering, Biomedical, Student Projects
To design and implement an electrical circuit that simulates the core feedback control of an artificial pancreas, using voltage to model blood glucose and automatically regulating a simulated insulin delivery mechanism.
An artificial pancreas is a sophisticated system designed to mimic how the human pancreas regulates blood glucose levels. Commercial artificial pancreas systems use continuous glucose monitors (CGM) and insulin pumps to automatically maintain safe glucose levels in people with diabetes.
In our first-year engineering project, we created a simplified electrical demonstration model of an artificial pancreas. Rather than using a real biological system, we used an Arduino-based circuit and simple liquids to model how glucose and insulin interact in the body. This project helped us understand key concepts in feedback control, sensors, and microcontroller programming.
In the human body, when a person eats foods containing carbohydrates, the blood glucose level rises. The pancreas responds by releasing insulin, which helps cells absorb glucose and bring blood sugar back to normal. In Type 2 diabetes, this regulation is impaired, so glucose levels may stay high.
In our demonstration:
Instead of measuring sugar directly, we measured the voltage of the distilled water to simulate glucose level changes in the system