Enhancing the Locomotion of an In Vivo Robot for Cardiac Surgery

This paper describes a technique to improve the locomotion of a miniature crawling robot, (Heart Lander) that uses suction to adhere to the surface of the beating heart. During locomotion, maintaining a vacuum seal with at least one of the suction pads is crucial. A new algorithm was developed to analyze data from pressure sensors monitoring the suction pads to accurately determine the suction status. HeartLander demonstrated successful locomotion on a realistic beating heart model when the algorithm was implemented.