Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
2.2
Chapter 2.2
Simulation and estimation
Stanley M. Dunn, Alkis Constantinides, and Prabhas Moghe
2.2.1 Numerical modeling
of bioengineering systems
The material in this chapter will enable the student to
accomplish the following:
Learn how MATLAB can be used to solve biomedical
engineering problems
Learn how Simulink can be used to simulate models
of physiological systems
Write MATLAB programs to solve bioengineering
problems
Develop Simulink models of physiological systems
Gain an understanding of the role that numerical
methods play as the interface between mathematical
model and computer solution
This chapter offers a number of examples designed to il-
lustrate the range of applications of numericalmethods and
computing environments such as MATLAB and Simulink
to biomedical engineering problems. Every attempt has
been made to first state the clinical or physiological prob-
lem, introduce the modeling method and show how
MATLAB and/or Simulink are used to create the computer
solution using the numerical methods from this text.
A number of these examples are drawn from resources
that are commonly available. Section 2.2.2 describes
PhysioNet,
a resource that includes a very large archive of
bioelectric signals and software tools that can be used for
research projects. The examples are a brief introduction
as to how this resource can be used. The electroen-
cephalogram (EEG) data used in Section 2.2.3 is avail-
able, as is the Simulink physiological simulation
benchmark experiment (PHYSBE) used in Section 2.2.7.
In all other cases, the problems were taken from the
biomedical engineering literature.
There is no particular order in which to read or review
these examples. As a guide,
Table 2.2-1
is a summary of
the examples presented in this chapter, in which the
problems have been categorized by the underlying phe-
nomena and the numerical method used. Simulink is
indicated in the cases where it is used.
Center for Research Resources of the National Institute
of Health (NIH). PhysioBank is an archive of contributed
and standardized physiologic signals and annotations. It
contains several examples to show how models, specifi-
cally frequency domain models, can be used to answer
questions about the physiology.
Another component of PhysioNet is PhysioToolkit,
which is a repository of software for analyzing Physio-
Bank data, visualizing data (including PhysioBank data),
signal processing, software development, and simulation.
Several of these software tools can be used withMATLAB;
some will be shown here as examples.
2.2.2 PhysioNet, PhysioBank,
and PhysioToolkit
2.2.2.1 ECG simulation
The MATLAB script given in Chapter 2.1b can be
used to generate a very crude simulation of a single
QRS complex. In PhysioToolkit, there is a MATLAB
PhysioNet is an Internet resource for biomedical
research and development sponsored by the National
