Fuzzy logic and mechanical ventilation.

Closed-loop control can achieve appropriate ventilation of the lungs in a healthy person by involving the continuous interaction of three components: sensors, controllers, and effectors. The sensors are the chemo-mechanoreceptors, which continuously monitor key bodily functions affected by ventilation. This information is relayed to the controllers, the respiratory centers in the brain, allowing them to determine how actual ventilation compares with that needed by the body. Finally, the controllers direct the effectors, the muscles of respiration, to adjust the ventilation accordingly. When a patient is in respiratory failure, the effector's role is taken over by a mechanical ventilator. The issue that is considered in this article is how the physician might be taken out of the feedback loop.