On the estimation and control of human body composition

Abstract

Obesity is a chronic disease that can lead to an increased risk of other serious chronic diseases and even death. We present switching and time-delayed feedback-based model-free control methods for the dynamic management of body mass and its major components. The estimation of body composition based on human body weight dynamics is proposed using a soft switching-based observer. Additionally, this paper addresses the control allocation problem for optimal body weight management using linear algebraic equivalence of the nonlinear controllers based on dynamic behaviour of body composition described in literature. A control allocator system computes the required energy intake and energy expenditure from a controlling range of inputs to track the desired trajectory of body mass by optimizing a weighted quadratic function. Simulation results validate the performance of the proposed controllers and the observer under disturbances in energy intake and energy expenditure.