Reducing operating time of a crawling robot for epicardial surgery

HeartLander is a small, mobile robot designed to assist with surgical procedures on the surface of the heart. It crawls within the pericardial sac surrounding the heart. The friction forces HeartLander experiences from the pericardium and the heartbeat reduce locomotion efficiency. We have developed an algorithm that creates a plan for reaching a set of treatment targets, while minimizing the time spent in locomotion. Results from simulation show improvement over a simple greedy technique.