Development of a soft finger for suction and grasp of the heart

- Second Report: Recovery by automatic suction from a detached state -

Abstract

This research aimed to develop a device used to fix the anastomotic site in coronary artery bypass grafting(CABG). In the previous paper, our team developed a flexible suction cup to prevent invasion and proposed a "Semi-indirect suction" system that generates suction forces on individual suction cups. Based on these results, this paper describes the development of an automatic suction function using the semi-indirect suction system, a proposal for the configuration of the device, and an evaluation of its fixation performance based on prototypes and experiments.