9. BIO- Soft robot helps the heart beat

SUMMARY:

A team of researchers at Harvard University and Boston Children's Hospital, have developed a customizable soft robot that fits sound the heart and helps it with beating and pumping blood. The robotic sleeve can twist and compress to sync with the beat of a heart, “augmenting cardiovascular functions weakened by heart failure”. What makes this device different from currently available soft robotic devices that assist the heart, is that this one does not interact with blood. The thin silicone sleeve of this device uses “soft pneumatic actuators placed around the heart to mimic the outer muscle layers of the mammalian heart”. These actuators twist and compress the sleeve in a similar motion to the beating heart. “The device is tethered to an external pump, which uses air to power the soft actuators”. This sleeve can be customized for patients to adjust with more weakness in certain areas of the heart. The sleeve is attached to the heart using a combination of a suction device, sutures, and a “gel interface” to help deal with friction between the device and the heart. This device can assist the heart and potentially even with healing and recovering.

Discussion:

I believe that this is a very positive invention that can impact many lives because this device can help deal with the problem of heart failure, which affects around 41 million people worldwide. This can potentially open a  new treatment option for people suffering from heart failure. Though there are many soft robotic devices to help the heart, this one is the only one to not interfere with the blood. This is a very good thing because this puts patients at a much lower risk for blood clots and strokes, according to the researchers. After reading this article I have become interested in the topic of soft robots that help the body function because I've never heard of a robot that can help the heart beat and function properly, and did not know that this kind of technology existed.

Works cited:

Soft Robot Helps the Heart Beat -- ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170118143755.htm. Accessed 23 Jan. 2017.

(same source above used for image)