LabVIEW App of the Month: HeartLander, a Mini Mobile Robot That Crawls Around the Beating Heart

[Laura Arnold]

Researchers at the Carnegie Melon Robotics Institute have  developed a revolutionary new medical device: the HeartLander, a  miniature robot that can crawl around the surface of the heart, taking  measurements and performing simple surgical tasks, all while the heart  continues to pump blood throughout the body. It can navigate to any  location on the epicardium, with clock speeds up  to 4 mm per second,  and acquire localization targets within 1 mm. And guess what? The  robot’s motion is  controlled entirely with LabVIEW software and NI data  acquisition  hardware.

Interested in learning more? Click here for the full story (including the Ph.D. thesis describing the project).

An early prototype of HeartLander. Image reproduced from Nicholas Patronik, Carnegie Melon University.