Soft Robot Hugs Your Heart To Keep It Pumping

According to an article in Popular Science magazine --- A team lead by engineers at Harvard University is testing a silicone sleeve that slips over the bottom of the heart like a cocoon, then inflates and deflates to squeeze the heart and give it a powerful beat. Proof-of-concept studies showed that the soft robot restored normal blood flow in six pigs whose hearts had stopped. There's still a lot more work to be done, including long-term studies in animals (and then humans). But if the experiments continue to be successful, the robot may one day provide an alternative to the current treatment for severe heart failure. Doctors implant ventricular assist devices (VADs) to keep a patient's heart pumping while waiting for a transplant, or to keep them alive indefinitely. To get more in depth information on the soft robot that hugs your heart to keep it pumping click on the pictures below to read the articles.