Soft Robotic Delivery of Coiled Anchors for Cardiac Interventions
Leonardo Zamora Yañez, Jacob Rogatinsky, Dominic Recco, Sang-Yoep Lee, Grace Matthews, Andrew Sabelhaus, David Hoganson, Tommaso Ranzani
AI summary
Problem
Conventional catheters lack the dexterity, stability, and force transmission needed for complex intracardiac procedures like coiled anchor implantation in a beating heart.
Approach
The authors designed a soft stacked-balloon manipulator coupled with a threaded, torque-sensing anchor driver, and developed a kineto-static model with closed-loop feedback to guide the robot along precise paths.
Key results
- Kineto-static model achieves <1.34 mm positional error during inflation
- Self-releasing delivery mechanism enables safe, torque-controlled anchor deployment
- Successful implantation of nine anchors in a motile in-vitro simulator with millimeter accuracy
- Demonstrated >0.8 N tissue puncture force and stable torque transmission in ex-vivo tissue
Why it matters
Provides a viable pathway for minimally invasive pacemaker and valve repair procedures that currently require high-risk open-heart surgery.
Abstract
Trans-catheter cardiac intervention has become an increasingly available option for high-risk patients without the complications of open heart surgery. However, current catheter- based platforms suffer from a lack of dexterity, force application, and compliance required to perform complex intracardiac proce- dures. An exemplary task that would significantly ease minimally invasive intracardiac procedures is the implantation of anchor coils, which can be used to fix and implant various devices. We introduce a robotic platform capable of delivering anchor coils. We develop a kineto-statics model of the robotic platform and demonstrate low positional error. We leverage the passive compliance and high force output of the actuator in a multi- anchor delivery procedure against a motile in-vitro simulator with millimeter level accuracy.