Graphics enhanced version of this site

HeartLander
Head: Cameron Riviere
Contact: Cameron Riviere (cam.riviere@cs.cmu.edu)

Mailing address:
MRT Center
The Robotics Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890
(412) 268 6553 (Jim Osborn, Executive Director)
(412) 268 6436 (FAX)

Associated center: MRTC
Associated lab/group: Medical Instrumentation Lab

For more information, see this project's homepage.

HeartLander is a miniature mobile robot designed to facilitate minimally invasive therapy to the surface of the beating heart. Under physician control, the robot:

• enters the chest through an incision below the sternum,
• adheres to the epicardial surface of the heart,
• autonomously navigates to the specified location, and
• administers the therapy.

The current tethered design uses suction to maintain prehension of the epicardial surface, and drive-wire actuation to provide locomotion. The physician controls the robot with a joystick interface while viewing a graphical representation of the robot on the heart that is generated using an onboard magnetic tracking sensor. The control system also uses these tracking data to provide autonomous navigation to the specified target. After the target has been acquired, the physician administers the therapy through the working channel of the robot.

HeartLander has been evaluated through a series of studies on a closed-chest beating porcine model with the pericardium intact. The results demonstrated its ability to traverse the entire surface of the ventricles, to autonomously acquire target patterns with high accuracy, and to maintain stability. Additionally, preclinical feasibility studies have demonstrated myocardial injection of dye, epicardial lead placement, and epicardial ventricular ablation from HeartLander.

Name - Title <Email Address>
• Peter David Allen - Research Assistant <pda5@pitt.edu>
• [Home] Nicholas Patronik - Postdoctoral Fellow <patronik@cmu.edu>
• [Home] Cameron Riviere - Associate Research Professor, RI/Bio Med <cam.riviere@cs.cmu.edu>
• Marco A Zenati - Adjunct Faculty (Adjunct) <zenatim@msx.upmc.edu>

Note: This list may not be comprehensive. It contains only those publications in the RI publications database. Entries are listed in reverse chronological order.

• Percutaneous Subxiphoid Access to the Epicardium Using a Miniature Crawling Robotic Device
  T. Ota, N. Patronik, C. Riviere, and M.A. Zenati
  Innovations, Vol. 1, No. 5, October, 2006, pp. 227-231. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [660 KB] copyrighted

• Improved Traction for a Mobile Robot Traveling on the Heart
  N. Patronik, T. Ota, M.A. Zenati, and C. Riviere
  28th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), September, 2006, pp. 339 - 342. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [272 KB] copyrighted

• Enhancing the Locomotion of an In Vivo Robot for Cardiac Surgery
  F. Razjouyan, N. Patronik, M.A. Zenati, and C. Riviere
  Proceedings of the IEEE 32nd Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, April, 2006, pp. 97 - 98. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [240 KB] copyrighted

• A Miniature Cable-Driven Robot for Crawling on the Heart
  N. Patronik, M.A. Zenati, and C. Riviere
  Proceedings of the 27th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), September, 2005, pp. 5771 - 5774. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [330 KB] copyrighted

• Preliminary Evaluation of a Mobile Robotic Device for Navigation and Intervention on the Beating Heart
  N. Patronik, M.A. Zenati, and C. Riviere
  Computer Aided Surgery, Vol. 10, No. 4, July, 2005, pp. 225 - 232. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [663 KB] copyrighted

• The HeartLander: A Novel Epicardial Crawling Robot for Myocardial Injections
  N. Patronik, C. Riviere, S.E. Qarra, and M.A. Zenati
  Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, Elsevier, Vol. 1281C, June, 2005, pp. 735-739. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [242 KB] copyrighted

• Development and Preliminary Testing of a Mobile Robot for Cardiac Intervention
  N. Patronik
  master's thesis, tech. report CMU-RI-TR-05-08, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, February, 2005. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [651 KB] copyrighted

• Crawling on the Heart: A Mobile Robotic Device for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Interventions
  N. Patronik, M.A. Zenati, and C. Riviere
  Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI), Springer, Vol. LNCS 3117, September, 2004, pp. 9 - 16. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [196 KB] copyrighted

• A Prototype Epicardial Crawling Device for Intrapericardial Intervention on the Beating heart
  C. Riviere, N. Patronik, and M.A. Zenati
  The Heart Surgery Forum, Forum Multimedia Publishing, LLC, Vol. 7, No. 6, July, 2004, pp. E639 - E643. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [299 KB] copyrighted

• Development of a Tethered Epicardial Crawler for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Therapies
  N. Patronik, M.A. Zenati, and C. Riviere
  IEEE 30th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, IEEE, April, 2004, pp. 239-240. [Abstract]
  Download: pdf [246 KB] copyrighted