RobIn Heart in 2002 - actual state of Polish Cardio-Robot

Presented in this article is the project of manipulator, named RobIn Heart, which is run by Foundation of Cardiac Surgery Development in Zabrze, Poland, in cooperation with specialists from the Technical University of Lodz and Warsaw University of Technology which assumes the realisation of original prototype of a robot for usage in cardiac surgery and development of surgery operation planning system. The brief history of robotic surgery and fundamental advantages of employing robots in this field follow the assumptions of Polish Cardio-Robot project. The detailed mechanical analysis and original construction of the main parts of robot are presented in further sections. We continue with control software description and close the paper with conclusions and future plans.