Devices are being developed so that robots can perform cardiac surgery. These robots will steer catheters through a beating heart using image guidance from ultrasound imaging. An appropriate ultrasound-compatible cardiac simulator has been developed in order to test these systems. This simulator mimics the geometry and the complex motion of a beating human heart. The left ventricle phantom is comprised of a soft echogenic material that mimics heart tissue in an ultrasound image. The cardiac simulator will be a useful tool for research and industry applications where testing on an ultrasound compatible phantom is desirable.
