Pacemaker Design

Utilized Python and Simulink to program a GUI and an FRDM board respectively to operate at various chamber pacing modes.

A pacemaker is a small device that is implanted under the skin of the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heart rhythms. The device uses electrical pulses to regulate the heart's rhythm, ensuring that it beats at a steady rate.

Pacemakers are typically recommended for individuals who have a condition known as bradycardia, which is characterized by a slow heart rate. This can occur as a result of a variety of conditions, such as heart block, which is caused by damage to the heart's electrical system, or heart disease.

The device is programmed to deliver electrical impulses to the heart, helping it to beat at a steady rate. The pacemaker can be programmed to work in different modes, such as a "demand" mode, which only delivers an impulse when the heart's rhythm is abnormal, or a "fixed rate" mode, which delivers impulses at a set rate regardless of the heart's rhythm.

Simulink Stateflow

Programming a pacemaker using Simulink would involve using Stateflow, a tool within Simulink, to design, simulate, and test the control logic for the pacemaker. Stateflow is a graphical environment for modeling, simulating, and analyzing state machines, flow charts, and decision logic. It allows you to create a model of the pacemaker's behavior and control logic, including the different states and transitions of the device, and test it in a virtual environment before deploying it on the physical device.

Using Simulink Stateflow for pacemaker programming allows for efficient design and testing of the control logic, as it provides a visual representation of the different states and transitions, and allows for easy modification and testing of different scenarios. Additionally, the ability to generate code for the FRDM boards directly from the Stateflow model streamlines the deployment process.

Using state flow I was able to program the pacemaker for various Bradycardia operating modes including:

Serial Communication

We set up serical communication between the board and the DCM. This involved configuring the serial communication interface (SCI) on the FRDM board and using a library such as pySerial in the Python program to handle the communication.

I used Simulink Stateflow to model the serial communication and then flashed it into the board.