Towards a new cyber-physical system for MRI-guided and robot-assisted cardiac procedures

Image-guided and robot-assisted minimally invasive surgical procedures are rapidly evolving due to their improved patient management and potential cost effectiveness. Currently, robot-assisted intracardiac surgeries on the beating heart are still in their infancy due to the challenges associated with the dynamic environment of operation. An approach to address those challenges is the use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for preoperative planning as well as for real-time intraoperative guidance. The objective of this paper is to propose a novel cyber-physical system for planning and performing robot-assisted MRI guided interventions in the beating heart with particular focus on aortic valve implantations. Our ongoing research focuses on developing a computational core for MRI-based preoperative planning and generation of dynamic robot maneuvering trajectories, real-time tissue tracking, and a novel MR-compatible robotic manipulator for transapical access to the beating heart.