Development of a Flexible Parallel Wire Robot for Epicardial Interventions.

Area of Science:

• Robotics in Medicine
• Biomedical Engineering
• Minimally Invasive Surgery

Background:

• HeartPrinter is a flexible parallel wire robot designed for gene therapy delivery to the beating heart.
• It utilizes vacuum suction for adherence and a cable-actuated injector head for precise treatment application.
• Deployment onto the epicardium necessitates an introducer mechanism and accurate registration of the robot's workspace and anatomical pose.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the components and introducer mechanism of the HeartPrinter system.
• To evaluate the system's performance and accuracy on an artificial beating heart model.
• To assess the feasibility of workspace determination and anatomical registration for epicardial robotic applications.

Main Methods:

• Development and presentation of HeartPrinter's components and introducer mechanism.
• Assessment of the system on an artificial beating heart.
• Evaluation of the accuracy of base positioning and 3D heart scan registration.

Main Results:

• The introducer mechanism successfully deployed HeartPrinter onto the artificial beating heart.
• The robot's bases adhered effectively to the beating surface.
• Accurate calculations for base positions and registration were achieved, with errors below 4 mm and 2 mm, respectively.

Conclusions:

• The introducer mechanism enables HeartPrinter deployment onto the epicardium.
• HeartPrinter components are capable of operating on the beating heart.
• Workspace determination and registration are feasible preliminary concepts for robotic epicardial interventions.