Improving the Reliability of the Central Control Unit of the Main Pump in Heart Lung Machine Using Fault Tolerance Techniques

Abstract

This research aims to improve the reliability of the control unit of the main pump of the heart-lung machine by using the techniques of fault tolerance.

The technique which has been used here is to use an additional unit, link it with the main unit and study the mechanism of linking and switching between each other. 

The performance of the new system has been estimated using calculations to the measures of the reliability before and after raising the reliability.

The results showed that the failure rate after raising the reliability has decreased by almost 24.3%, and mean time to failure has increased by 32.1%.

Through these results, we show the importance of applying the techniques of fault tolerance systems to raise the reliability of systems, especially the medical ones which are in direct contact with the patient, and any failure may endanger the patient's life.