# Machine Learning for Mechanical Ventilation Control (Extended Abstract)

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.10434 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.10434/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 15 of its 60 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Nov 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Playing Atari with Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1312.5602/) (2013)
- [Mastering Atari, Go, Chess and Shogi by Planning with a Learned Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.08265/) (2019)
- [Learning Latent Dynamics for Planning from Pixels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.04551/) (2018)
- [Recurrent World Models Facilitate Policy Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.01999/) (2018)
- [Solving Rubik's Cube with a Robot Hand](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07113/) (2019)
- [Model-Based Reinforcement Learning for Atari](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.00374/) (2019)
- [Reinforcement Learning in Healthcare: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.08796/) (2019)
- [Closing the Sim-to-Real Loop: Adapting Simulation Randomization with Real World Experience](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.05687/) (2018)
- [Residual Policy Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.06298/) (2018)
- [EPOpt: Learning Robust Neural Network Policies Using Model Ensembles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.01283/) (2016)
- [A Review of Challenges and Opportunities in Machine Learning for Health](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.00388/) (2018)
- [A Reinforcement Learning Approach to Weaning of Mechanical Ventilation in Intensive Care Units](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.06300/) (2017)
- [Temporally-Extended ε-Greedy Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.01782/) (2020)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Mechanical ventilation is one of the most widely used therapies in the ICU. However, despite broad application from anaesthesia to COVID-related life support, many injurious challenges remain. We frame these as a control problem: ventilators must let air in and out of the patient's lungs according to a prescribed trajectory of airway pressure. Industry-standard controllers, based on the PID method, are neither optimal nor robust. Our data-driven approach learns to control an invasive ventilator by training on a simulator itself trained on data collected from the ventilator. This method outperforms popular reinforcement learning algorithms and even controls the physical ventilator more accurately and robustly than PID. These results underscore how effective data-driven methodologies can be for invasive ventilation and suggest that more general forms of ventilation (e.g., non-invasive, adaptive) may also be amenable.