Elimination of spiral waves in 2D excitable media by feedback control

TL;DR

This paper proposes a feedback control method to eliminate spiral waves in 2D excitable media, such as cardiac tissue, using a finite number of actuators and a systematic design approach validated by simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel feedback control strategy for 2D excitable media, extending previous 1D methods, with a systematic design and stability analysis framework.

Findings

Control successfully suppresses spiral waves with enough actuators.

The method is validated through numerical simulations.

Control effectiveness depends on the number of actuators used.

Abstract

Control strategy for suppression of spiral-wave in a 2-D model of an excitable media is developed with application to the cardiac system. The controller which incorporates a finite number of actuators (electrodes) assures the establishment of traveling plane behavior using the following strategy in the context of cardiac system: a small current that is proportional to a discrepancy between actual and assigned voltages at some sensor position is imposed via the actuators. We present a systematic methodology for controller design and for stability analysis based on an approximate 1-D model of the wave front. The validity of control is checked by numerical simulations. Control is successful provided a sufficient number of actuators is incorporated. The proposed control method is similar in spirit to that the previously developed by the authors for a 1-D model of cardiac tissue.