A novel dynamic cardiac simulator utilizing pneumatic artificial muscle

Abstract

With the development of methods and skills of minimally invasive surgeries, equipments for doctors' training and practicing are in high demands. Especially for the cardiovascular surgeries, operators are requested to be familiar with the surgical environment of a beating heart. In this paper, we present a new dynamic cardiac simulator utilizing pneumatic artificial muscle to realize heartbeat. It's an artificial left ventricular of which the inner chamber is made of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) with an anatomical structure of the real human heart. It is covered by another layer of material forming the artificial muscle which actuates the systole and diastole uniformly and omnidirectionally as the cardiac muscle does. Preliminary experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of the simulator. The results indicated that the pressure at the terminal of the aorta could be controlled within the range of normal human systolic pressure, which quantitatively validated the new actuating mode of the heart-beating is effective.

Soft robotics for physical simulators, artificial organs and implantable assistive devices

“…For what concerns the cardiovascular system, many research efforts were dedicated to develop cardiac simulators for various purposes, such as medical training and cardiovascular device testing and validation. The development of soft but also active myocardial structures enabled the simulation of physiological flows and pressures [158]. In [159], two layers of elastomeric membranes constitute the myocardium, deforming thanks to pneumatic inflation and deflation.…”

“…However, the applied translation and rotation to the apex is poorly accurate, resulting in ejection fraction lower than physiologic (147) and flow patterns that are similar but not directly comparable to the in vivo blood flow (149). The development of myocardial structures that are soft but also active, enabled the simulation of realistic pumped blood volumes and aortic pressures (150). In (151), the myocardium of the cardiac phantom is constituted by two layers of elastomeric membranes, and it is deformed through pneumatic inflation and deflation.…”

Harnessing Mechanical Instabilities in the Development of an Efficient Soft Pump for an Artificial Heart Ventricle Simulator

“…However, the research on soft pumps also holds the future potential for deployment as artificial hearts, either for partial or complete organ replacement [18]. To mimic the pumping of human heart ventricles, the so far reported soft pumps exploited traditional actuation principles, such as the pressurization of foam-based actuators [19], or deformable pouches [20], [21] enclosed within bioinspired cases [22]. To enable a biomimetic motion, both sleeves supporting the cardiac functionality [23] and dynamic heart simulators [24], [25] relied on helically oriented structures and/or soft actuators.…”