Central pattern generators based control of a swallowing device

This study presents the problem of controlling rhythmic activities based on Central Pattern Generators (CPGs), the essential mechanism under most rhythmic activities. Soft robots and CPGs have been previously used in bioengineering to explore the feature of various biology systems. But there has been no research related to the field of soft robotics and CPG controller in studying dysphagia to help food scientists to design new food. A CPG control system was created based on Matsuoka model for the swallowing robot to explore the relationship between food bolus and artificial esophageal variables. Oscillations were generated for primary involuntary peristalsis. This work will be extended to generate secondary involuntary peristalsis by taking into account the entrainment parameters and refectory sensing. The simulation results shown that the proposed oscillator model could generate rhythmic oscillation. By exploring the connection between the neural oscillator and the layers of the swallowing robot, different kinds of swallowing activities can be achieved with a simple system.