During a medical operation an anesthesiologist controls the depth of unconsciousness by controlling the concentration of isoflurane in a vaporized mixture with oxygen and nitrous oxide. The depth of anesthesia is measured by the patient’s blood pressure. The anesthesiologist also regulates ventilation, fluid balance, and the administration of other drugs. In order to free the anesthesiologist to devote more time to the latter tasks, and in the interest of the patient’s safety, we wish to automate the depth of anesthesia by automating the control of isoflurane concentration. Draw a functional block diagram of the system showing pertinent signals and subsystems (Meier, 1992).
