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Dealing with Diabetes: The Road to Developing an Artificial Pancreas

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Abstract

Imagine if you had to take medicine every time you ate, and you had to use a math formula to figure out how much medicine to take based on the nutritional makeup of the food, how you were feeling, and what activities you were planning to do. You might also need extra medicine throughout the day (even in the middle of the night) based on your blood glucose levels. People with diabetes who take insulin do this every day. They use finger sticks and blood glucose meters or a continuous glucose sensor to monitor their blood glucose throughout the day and take insulin to keep blood glucose within safe levels. Improvements in insulin pump and glucose sensor technology have led to smarter "hybrid loop" systems that can automatically adjust and administer insulin in response to changes in blood glucose levels. Because this type of system attempts to mimic the way the human pancreas works to regulate blood glucose, it is sometimes referred to as an artificial pancreas. In this project you will explore how these systems work by building a circuit that acts as a model of an artificial pancreas using two different liquids (tap water and distilled water instead of insulin and blood). You will try to fine-tune your circuit so it can quickly and safely adjust "blood sugar" to the right levels.

Summary

Areas of Science
Difficulty
 
Time Required
Short (2-5 days)
Prerequisites
Previous experience with electronic circuits and an Arduino® is recommended.
Material Availability
A kit is available from our partner Home Science Tools. See the Materials section for details.
Cost
Average ($40 - $80)
Safety
Be careful when building your circuit. Short circuits can get hot.
Credits
Teisha Rowland, PhD, Science Buddies
Svenja Lohner, PhD, Science Buddies
Ben Finio, PhD, Science Buddies
Andrew Bonham, PhD, Metropolitan State University of Denver
Amy Cowen, Science Buddies

Objective

Build a circuit that models an artificial pancreas by turning insulin delivery on and off in response to blood glucose levels.

Introduction

Scientists and engineers are often motivated to do their work in order to help people out. One area in which that motivation is readily apparent is in the field of biomedical engineering, where a great deal of research focuses on creating better medical devices and equipment. For people with diabetes, smarter insulin pumps and glucose monitoring technologies can make a big difference in how effectively they manage the disease. An artificial pancreas, or insulin pump that coordinates with a continuous glucose monitor, can automate some of the maintenance and monitoring of blood glucose, including increasing or decreasing insulin, to help people control their blood glucose more effectively. These systems can take over some of the decisions and calculations involved in insulin therapy and can monitor and respond to blood glucose 24/7, often making changes every few minutes. These systems can reduce the burden of managing diabetes and may lead to better overall management, but creating devices that can successfully manage blood glucose is a complex task and involves a large number of variables. The pancreas has a very complex biological role that has to be mimicked by a combination of electronics, chemistry, and biology. This project will allow you to explore some of the complexities engineers and scientists face as they develop artificial pancreas technologies.

First, let us step back for a moment and have a quick crash course (or a refresher if you are already familiar) on diabetes. The body uses a simple sugar, called glucose, as its primary fuel. We get glucose from the food we eat. Both table sugar (sucrose) and other types of carbohydrates, such as starch (found in large quantities in pasta and other grain-rich foods), are broken down by our bodies to make glucose. Because food can be broken down to make glucose, the level of glucose in a person's blood—which is commonly referred to as the blood glucose level—usually goes up after he or she eats. See Figure 1 for typical blood glucose level fluctuations for a person over the course of a day. Note that blood glucose is typically measured in milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) in the US (other countries may use different units).

Example graph of typical blood glucose levels over the course of a day

Glucose level graph shows spikes in blood glucose during breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a steady decrease in blood glucose after 8 p.m. Sucrose rich foods are highly available during lunch but availability decreases dramatically before dinner.


Figure 1. This graph shows how a person's blood glucose levels may change over the course of a day, and how eating a meal with lots of sugar (sucrose) can affect blood glucose levels. The y-axis shows blood glucose levels (in mg/dL). (Image credits: adapted from a figure by Jakob Suckale, Michele Solimena, Wikimedia Commons, 2011)

Like most of the chemicals in your blood, glucose must be tightly controlled. The level of glucose in your blood is regulated by insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas. When blood glucose levels rise after eating a meal, the pancreas releases insulin, which causes cells in the body (such as liver, muscle, and fat cells) to take up glucose, removing it from the blood and storing it (as glycogen) to use for energy later. When blood glucose levels start falling, the pancreas stops releasing insulin, and the stored glucose is used for energy. If blood glucose levels get too low, the pancreas may produce glucagon, a hormone that increases the levels. This process is how the pancreas and the hormones it produces regulate blood glucose levels. Watch this video to see how blood glucose levels can change over time for different people.

This video shows how blood glucose levels change over time for people with and without diabetes (Khan Academy, 2011).

However, in people with type 1 diabetes (which is caused by an autoimmune response, and was formerly known as juvenile diabetes), the pancreas no longer makes insulin. Without insulin, the blood glucose levels of a person with type 1 diabetes may go dangerously high, which is a condition called hyperglycemia. In type 2 diabetes—which makes up the vast majority of diabetes cases—a person has insulin resistance, which means the body does not respond effectively to insulin or the pancreas does not make enough insulin. Currently, a person with type 1 diabetes (and some with type 2 diabetes) must take insulin to treat the condition.

Insulin can help a person with diabetes control blood sugar, but taking insulin is not a once-a-day medicine, and figuring out how much insulin to take is not a simple task. Many things have an effect on insulin levels in a person's body, including exercise, stress, illness, and what and how much they eat. People with diabetes take insulin in a ratio to the carbohydrates they eat, in certain amounts when blood glucose is high, and in some form to provide background (basal) insulin all day long—even when they aren't eating. (Remember, the pancreas monitors and calculates all of this automatically in a person without diabetes.) Having blood glucose levels that are too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia) can cause serious health problems. This leaves many type 1 diabetes patients constantly checking their blood glucose levels, calculating how their actions may affect their blood glucose, and adjusting their insulin doses to avoid dangerously high or low blood glucose. This video provides a brief overview of what this can be like for people with type 1 diabetes:

As previously discussed, to take away the difficulties of managing type 1 diabetes, scientists and engineers continue to develop and improve insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors (CGM), and other technologies that may contribute to an artificial pancreas. People with diabetes who take insulin take it in the form of insulin injections (using a needle) or infusions using an insulin pump, like the one shown in Figure 2. Insulin pumps are typically small, about the size of a cell phone. Some pumps work with a continuous glucose monitor, a separate sensor a person wears that detects the amount of glucose in the persons' blood and offers an updated reading every few minutes. When integrated, an insulin pump can use the CGM'S data to make decisions about how much insulin to give. This might mean temporarily increasing basal insulin, administering a bolus of extra insulin, or temporarily reducing or shutting off basal insulin.

Systems like this may be referred to as a form of loop. In a hybrid loop system, the pump may automate adjustments to some insulin delivery, but the person with diabetes still has to enter information about the amount of carbohydrates being eaten and other factors that may affect blood glucose. Users also have to program the pump with information about how much basal insulin they need every hour, how much insulin they require per gram of carbohydrate at different times of the day, and how much insulin they need to lower their blood glucose a certain amount (which is then used to calculate insulin corrections when blood glucose is high). A hybrid loop system can use this information, along with readings from a CGM and information about how long insulin is active in the body, to help manage insulin delivery and blood glucose levels. To see what it is like to use an insulin pump and continuous glucose sensor to manage type 1 diabetes, you can check out the video in the article by D. Grau in the Bibliography.

A person holds an insulin pump that is inserted into their waist area
Figure 2. This picture shows an insulin pump attached to a person's body to infuse specific amounts of insulin.

The following video will give you a basic understanding of the goals of an artificial pancreas and the path to making one. Since this is a rapidly progressing field, you should do your own internet search to see what the current status of the research is.

This video shows what research is being done to create an artificial pancreas.

Now that you have a better understanding of type 1 diabetes and what an artificial pancreas is, you may be wondering how you can experiment with something related to insulin pumps or artificial pancreas technology for a science fair project. In this project, you will experiment to see how an artificial pancreas can automate insulin delivery in response to blood glucose levels by building a simplified model of an artificial pancreas. Your model will use two different liquids to represent blood and insulin: distilled water and tap water. Instead of measuring glucose content of the liquids, you will measure their electrical conductivity by building a circuit that outputs a voltage.

Distilled water is not very conductive. In your model, it will represent blood with high sugar content, which will cause the circuit to output a high voltage. Tap water is much more conductive, so when you add it to distilled water, the conductivity increases. This means you can use tap water to represent insulin in your model. When you add it to distilled water, the conductivity will increase, and the circuit's output voltage will drop, corresponding to a decrease in blood sugar in the model. Table 1 summarizes what happens in the real physical system (the human body) and what is used to represent the same parameters and behaviors in the model.

Human Body Artificial Pancreas Model
Blood Distilled water
Insulin Tap water
Blood glucose levels Voltage
Adding insulin to blood with high glucose levels causes the glucose levels to decrease Adding tap water to distilled water causes the voltage to decrease
Eating carbohydrates causes blood glucose levels to increase Adding more distilled water causes the voltage to increase again
Table 1. Summary of parameters in the human body and what represents them in your artificial pancreas model.

You will use an Arduino to build your artificial pancreas model. An Arduino is a type of programmable microcontroller, which is sort of like a little computer that you can program to interact with electronic circuits. The Arduino can take readings from sensors and take actions based on the readings. In this case, the Arduino will read the voltage from a conductivity sensor placed in water and use that information to decide whether to turn a pump on or off. Turning the pump on will add "insulin" (tap water) to bring the "blood glucose" (voltage) levels down. This process of controlling a parameter (blood glucose/voltage) using sensor readings is called feedback control. Feedback control is a very important topic in engineering. It is used in everything from temperature control in ovens and thermostats to motion control in robots, airplanes, and autonomous cars.

For example, you might set the thermostat in your house to 70°F in winter. The thermostat measures the air temperature in your house. If the temperature is below 70°F, it will turn the heat on. If the temperature goes above 70°F, it will turn the heat off. Ideally, you would want your house to warm up quickly if it is cold (you do not want it to take all day to get to 70° if it is only 60° to start with). You also want to avoid overshoot, or going too far past your desired temperature. It would be annoying if your house first heated up to 80° before cooling back down to 70°. The same concept applies to blood glucose levels for people with diabetes. Blood glucose levels that are too high or too low can both be dangerous. When a person with diabetes injects insulin, ideally they want their blood glucose levels to quickly return to normal levels, without going past that level and going too low before stabilizing. Keep in mind that insulin does not immediately reduce blood glucose. Some insulins work over a period of hours. Understanding this timing is very important to insure someone doesn't receive too much insulin and is an important consideration for scientists as they develop the algorithms used by artificial pancreas systems. The model that you will build in this project generally responds to changes very quickly, within a few seconds, but it is important to remember that real feedback control systems can take much longer depending on the physical system that is being controlled. Heating (or cooling) a house and controlling blood glucose are both examples of systems that can take several hours to respond.

It is very important for an artificial pancreas to have a well-designed feedback control system to keep blood glucose levels in a safe range. In this project, you will follow instructions to build a basic artificial pancreas model with an Arduino. You will then try to edit the code to improve your feedback loop to get a better response. This is an open-ended project that follows the engineering design process. You can read more about the engineering design process and the difference between it and the scientific method in the Bibliography. If you are not familiar with an Arduino or working with circuits, several references in the Bibliography can help you with that as well. If you would like to know how exactly the circuit in this project works, see the following technical note.

How Does the Circuit Work?

Figure 3 shows the circuit you will build in this project. It has two main parts. First, a voltage divider measures the conductivity of the water. The voltage divider consists of one fixed resistor (R1) and a pair of electrodes immersed in water (R2). The input voltage (Vin) is the 5 V supply from the Arduino. The output voltage (Vout) is measured by one of the Arduino's analog (continuously variable) inputs. A voltage divider's output voltage is determined by Equation 1:

Next, the circuit has a pump that is controlled by one of the Arduino's digital (on/off) pins and a transistor. The transistor acts like an electronic valve that controls the current flowing through the pump. A transistor is necessary because the Arduino's digital pins can only supply a small amount of electrical current, about 20 milliamps (mA), while the pump requires about 500 mA. The transistor allows the pump to draw its power directly from the Arduino's 5 V supply, which can provide much more current than the individual digital pins.

circuit diagram for the artificial pancreas project

Circuit diagram showing a voltage divider consisting of resistors R1 (100 kilohms) and R2 (conductivity sensor) connected between 5 volts and ground, with the output connected to Arduino in A0. Arduino digital pin 11 is connected to the gate of a MOSFET with its source connected to ground and its drain connected to a pump which is powered from 5 volts.


Figure 3. Circuit diagram for the artificial pancreas model.

Example code for the Arduino is provided in the project's procedure. It provides a simple on/off control loop. It measures the voltage from the voltage divider using the Arduino's analogRead function. This function returns a number between 0 and 1023*. If the measured value is above a certain threshold (e.g., "blood sugar" is too high in the model), the code turns the pump on using the digitalWrite function. When the measured value drops below the defined threshold, the code turns the pump off.

* This is because the Arduino's analog-to-digital converter is 10-bit, meaning it can store 210 possible values. 210 is 1024, but the Arduino starts counting at 0, so the values range from 0–1023.

Terms and Concepts

Questions

Bibliography

Here are some useful resources on diabetes, blood glucose levels, insulin pumps, and artificial pancreases:

You can check out these resources if you are just starting out with electronics:

Use these resources to learn about the engineering design process and its differences from the scientific method:

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Experimental Procedure

Note: This engineering project is best described by the engineering design process, as opposed to the scientific method. You might want to ask your teacher whether it's acceptable to follow the engineering design process for your project before you begin. You can learn more about the engineering design process in the Science Buddies Engineering Design Process Guide.
Note: If you have never used an Arduino before, please see our How to Use an Arduino page and go through at least the first three tutorials before you attempt the procedure for this project.
  1. Build your conductivity sensor using two strips of aluminum foil and a piece (or pieces) of floating material. There are several options to build one (Figure 4). Make sure the sensor fits in the container you will use for water (Figure 5).
    1. The exact dimensions of the sensor do not matter. The general idea is that it should have two strips of aluminum foil, spaced apart by several inches, so they will sit at opposite ends of your water container.
    2. The sensor should float so that the amount of submerged surface area on the aluminum foil stays constant while you add water (the amount of submerged surface area will affect the conductivity reading).
    3. You will need to grab on to each piece of aluminum foil with an alligator clip, so make sure you leave part of each piece sticking up.
    Two options for building the conductivity sensor. One is a long rectangular piece of foam with two strips of aluminum foil wrapped around its ends, secured with tape. The other is two corks separated by a toothpick, with a strip of aluminum foil wrapped around each cork, secured by tape.
    Figure 4. Two options for building a conductivity sensor. Left: a piece of packing foam with two strips of aluminum foil wrapped around its ends. Right: two corks with aluminum foil strips wrapped around them, spaced apart by a toothpick.

    The foam conductivity sensor floating in a plastic food storage container of water, with alligator clips attached to the aluminum foil at each end
    Figure 5. Conductivity sensor floating in a container of water with alligator clips attached to the aluminum foil.
  2. Build the circuit. Figure 6 shows a "breadboard view" diagram. If you prefer to work with the circuit diagram, refer to Figure 3 in the introduction. Do not connect your Arduino to the USB cable yet. This will ensure that your circuit remains powered-down while you build it.
    1. Connect 5V on your Arduino to the power (+) bus on your breadboard.
    2. Connect the left and right power buses to each other.
    3. Connect GND on the Arduino to the ground (-) bus on your breadboard.
    4. Connect the left and right ground buses to each other.
    5. Put the MOSFET in the breadboard with the large metal tab facing to the left, and the writing on the front facing to the right. Each pin on the MOSFET should be in a different row of the breadboard.
    6. Connect the MOSFET's first pin on the left (when the writing is facing you, so the bottom-most pin in Figure 6) to Arduino digital pin 11.
    7. Connect the MOSFET's third pin to the ground bus.
    8. Put the 100 kΩ resistor into two different rows on the breadboard. Connect one end of the resistor to the power bus. Connect the other end to Arduino analog input pin A0.
    9. Use jumper wires and alligator clips to connect your conductivity sensor. Connect one end of the sensor to the same end of the resistor that is connected to pin A0. Connect the other end to the ground bus.
    10. Use jumper wires and alligator clips to connect the pump. Connect the tab labeled with a "+" to the power bus. Connect the other tab to the middle pin of the MOSFET.
    Breadboard diagram for artificial pancreas arduino circuit
    Figure 6. A breadboard diagram of the artificial pancreas model circuit. Click here to open a larger version of the diagram.
  3. Before you continue, you will need to calibrate your conductivity sensor. Fill one of your containers about halfway with distilled water. Place your conductivity sensor in the container. Make sure it floats. You may need to adjust the alligator clips.
  4. Temporarily disconnect one alligator clip from the pump so it does not turn on during the calibration process.
  5. Plug one end of the USB cable into your Arduino and the other end into your computer. This will power up the Arduino and provide power to your circuit. If you have previously uploaded a different program to the Arduino, that program will start running automatically, but that is OK for now (which is why you disconnected your pump, just in case the Arduino code turns on pin 11). There are two different ways to take the calibration reading. Using a multimeter is not required, but it can be more convenient since you do not need to use a computer.
    1. If you have a multimeter available, set it to measure DC voltage and connect it to the circuit as show in Figure 7.
      1. Connect the multimeter's black probe to the ground bus and connect the red probe to the breadboard row that is connected to Arduino pin A0.
      2. Record the voltage reading. Convert it to an equivalent analogRead value by dividing it by 5, then multiplying by 1023 and rounding (for example, if your reading is 4 volts, the value would be 4/5×1023 = 818.4, which rounds to 818).
    2. If you do not have a multimeter available, download the calibration code to your computer. Then upload it to your Arduino. In the Arduino IDE, select Tools→Serial Monitor. The code will print out the analogRead value from the conductivity sensor. The value might fluctuate slightly. This is OK. Record the average value over a period of a few seconds.
    Multimeter connected to the circuit, displaying a value of 3.29 volts.
    Figure 7. Multimeter connected to measure voltage from the conductivity sensor.
  6. Fill your other container about halfway with tap water. Optionally, add a few drops of food coloring to make it easier to distinguish from the distilled water. Remove your conductivity sensor from the container with distilled water, dry it off with a towel, place it in the tap water, and the calibration procedure in step 5.
  7. The values you recorded in steps 5 and 6 are the maximum and minimum "blood sugar" values in your model. This can be a voltage (between 0 and 5 volts) or a number between 0 and 1023 (from the analogRead) function. To be clear, your Arduino code will use the number between 0 and 1023, not a number between 0 and 5, so if you measured a voltage, you need to convert it to the 0 1023 range as described in step 5. The "high" value corresponds to pure distilled water, and the "low" value corresponds to pure tap water. When you mix tap water and distilled water, you will get a number somewhere in between those two values. Your goal is to start the conductivity sensor out in a container of pure distilled water (which represents high blood glucose). Your code will measure the voltage from the conductivity sensor and automatically turn on the pump to start adding tap water to the container (to simulate adding insulin). This will cause the voltage to start dropping. When the voltage drops below a certain threshold that you define, the code will automatically turn the pump off. This models the behavior of an artificial pancreas, which would monitor blood glucose levels and apply insulin until glucose levels dropped (or were predicted to drop) to an acceptable level. Remember that your system is a model and responds to changes very quickly (within a few seconds), whereas changes in blood glucose levels can take much longer.
  8. Before you continue, you need to make sure you know which way water flows in your pump. Place both ends of the pump's tubing in the container with distilled water. Use alligator clips and jumper wires to connect the pump's electrical tabs directly to 5V (+) and GND (-) on your breadboard (the tab labeled "+" on the pump should go to 5V). This will turn the pump on. One at a time, carefully lift each of the pump's tubes out of the water. Watch closely to observe the direction of water flow (which tube has water dripping out of it?). Use a marker to draw arrows in the direction of water flow for each tube (Figure 8). Note that if you reverse the connections between 5V and GND, water will flow in the opposite direction. When you are done, disconnect the pump's negative wire from the GND pin.
  9. Leave the pump's outlet tube in the container of distilled water and place the inlet tube in the container of tap water.
  10. Remove the conductivity sensor from the container of tap water, rinse it off with some distilled water, and put it back in the container of distilled water.
    Pump with silicone tubing, with arrows drawn on the tubes to indicate the inlet tube and outlet tube
    Figure 8. Arrows labeling the direction of water flow in the pump.
  11. Download the example code. Read through the commented code and make sure you understand how it works. Choose a value for the "threshold" variable, the point at which you want the pump to turn off. Remember that this should be between the minimum and maximum values you recorded earlier (using the 0–1023 scale, not the 0–5 voltage scale). For example, if you recorded a minimum value of 200 and a maximum value of 800, you could set the threshold for the pump to turn off at 300. Upload the code to your Arduino and make sure you have the serial monitor open.
  12. Reconnect the pump's negative wire to the middle pin of the MOSFET on the breadboard. The pump should start right away, pumping tap water into the container with distilled water (Figure 9). As it pumps, use the pump's outlet tube to gently stir the distilled water container. This will help evenly distribute the tap water throughout the container. Watch the output on the serial monitor, and/or your multimeter reading if you have it connected.
    1. Does the pump turn off once the value reaches your defined threshold?
    2. Does the value keep changing after the pump turns off?
    3. If your pump does not turn on at all, unplug the USB cable from your Arduino. Double check your wiring, especially the connections to the MOSFET, since it controls the pump.
    4. If your pump never turns off, unplug the USB cable from your Arduino.
      1. Double check your wiring, especially the connections between the resistor, conductivity sensor, and analog input pin.
      2. Make sure the value you chose for the "threshold" value makes sense, as described in step 9.
     Arduino, multimeter, and two containers of water set up for artificial pancreas experiment
    Figure 9. The experimental setup, with the pump arranged to pump tap water into the container of distilled water.
  13. Continue to stir the water for a minute or so after the pump turns off. Once you are confident the pump is staying off, disconnect the USB cable from your Arduino. This will stop it from printing data to the serial monitor.
  14. (Note: the instructions in this step are for a Windows computer. You will need to figure out how to do it if you are using another operating system). Click in the serial monitor and press CTRL+A to select all of the data. Press CTRL+C to copy it, and then open a .txt file in a program like Notepad and paste the data in. Save this file.
  15. You will need to import your data into a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel® or Google Sheets®. Most spreadsheet programs can import text files and split the data into different columns. For example, Excel can import text files using a "delimiter," a special character (like a tab or a space), to indicate a new column. Import your data so you have the time in one column and the analog reading in a separate column.
  16. Make a graph of your sensor reading (y axis) vs time (x axis).
    1. How quickly does your sensor reading reach the threshold value after the pump initially turns on?
    2. Does the sensor reading overshoot, or go past, the threshold value?
    3. Where does the sensor reading eventually stabilize?
  17. Now it is time to apply the engineering design process and iterate to improve your model. Look at the Arduino code and think of ways to improve it. How can you get to the threshold value quickly without overshooting too much? This is an open-ended problem. Here are some suggestions to get you started.
    1. You can control the pump's speed using the analogWrite command. analogWrite accepts a value between 0–255 that corresponds to the pump's speed (e.g., 0 is off, 127 is about half-speed, and 255 is full-speed). What happens if you run the pump at a lower speed?
    2. You could try a different type of feedback control instead of basic on/off control. For example, instead of running it a constant speed, a proportional controller changes the pump's speed based on the measurement error, or the difference between the target sensor reading and the actual sensor reading. In other words, when the error is large (the actual reading is very far away from the target reading), the pump will run faster. As the error gets smaller, the pump will start to slow down.
    3. Advanced students can look up other types of control like proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control, which involves more advanced mathematical functions and calculus.
  18. Try editing the Arduino code, re-uploading it, and testing your model again. In between tests, rinse and dry your containers and conductivity sensor. You should start out with fresh distilled water each time.
  19. Compare your new graph of voltage vs. time to your previous graph. It may help to plot them on the same axes, with the x-values shifted if needed so the points where the pump starts align with each other.
  20. Remember that your system is a model of an artificial pancreas, where the sensor reading (voltage) represents blood glucose levels. Think back to the information about diabetes in the introduction. What would you need to consider when designing a real artificial pancreas? What kind of response (the shape of the voltage vs time graph) would be ideal for a person with diabetes? What are the differences in how insulin works (and how long it takes) compared to your model? What challenges do these differences create? Your model turns insulin on and off, but what happens if blood glucose levels end up too low (overshoot) and/or continue to drop? How can an artificial pancreas address this?

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting tips, please read our FAQ: Dealing with Diabetes: The Road to Developing an Artificial Pancreas.

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Global Connections

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

This project explores topics key to Good Health and Well-Being: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Variations

  • Pour more distilled water into your container after the pump has turned off. Does the pump automatically turn back on again? You could also automate this process by adding a second pump and another container of distilled water. This can represent blood glucose levels rising due to a person eating.
  • If you find it annoying to stir by hand, use a motor and build something to stir the water automatically. The motor can be controlled with your Arduino but note that if you connect multiple pumps and motors to your Arduino, they will require an external power supply.
  • If you are interested in building a real artificial pancreas, check out the following resources from the diabetes community:

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

If you are having trouble with this project, please read the FAQ below. You may find the answer to your question.
Q: My pump never turns on to begin with. What should I do?
A: Carefully double-check all of the wiring in your circuit. A single misplaced wire on the breadboard can prevent the entire circuit from working. You can confirm that there is nothing wrong with the pump itself by connecting it directly to 5V and GND on the Arduino.
Q: My pump never turns off. What should I do?
A: Carefully double-check all of the wiring in your circuit. It is possible for a misplaced wire to get the pump permanently stuck in the "on" state. Watch the serial monitor (or your multimeter screen) to make sure the sensor reading is dropping below the "threshold" value set in your code.
Q: My calibration readings for distilled water and tap water are very close to each other. This makes it hard to do the project. Can I change something?
A: First, make sure your distilled water has not been contaminated with tap water or any other impurities, which can dramatically increase its conductivity. To make your tap water more conductive, you can add a small amount of salt.

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Rowland, Teisha, Svenja Lohner, Ben Finio, Andrew Bonham, and Amy Cowen. "Dealing with Diabetes: The Road to Developing an Artificial Pancreas." Science Buddies, 6 Dec. 2023, https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/HumBio_p040/human-biology-health/developing-an-artificial-pancreas?from=Blog. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

APA Style

Rowland, T., Lohner, S., Finio, B., Bonham, A., & Cowen, A. (2023, December 6). Dealing with Diabetes: The Road to Developing an Artificial Pancreas. Retrieved from https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/HumBio_p040/human-biology-health/developing-an-artificial-pancreas?from=Blog


Last edit date: 2023-12-06
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