• McKibben actuator
• soft actuator
• soft artificial heart
• soft robotics

Heart failure, and in general heart diseases, are the first cause of mortality worldwide. In these cases, transplant is still the solely possible destination therapy. Indeed, due to donors’ shortage, 45% of patients die while waiting for a heart, making the development of a Total Artificial Heart (TAH) a matter of extreme medical importance. The so far developed devices, however, are still large, heavy, noisy and requiring the use of long-term anticoagulant drugs. For these reasons, a biomimetic soft artificial heart is being developed: aiming to replicate, as closely as possible, the human heart both in terms of structure and movement.
The aim of this thesis is, thus, to study and optimize durability, performance and biocompatibility of the fundamental unit of this farsighted device: the soft artificial muscle, i.e. the McKibben actuator. To optimise durability and performance, and reduce the causes of failure due to friction, the interaction between the all main components was analysed. Different types of braided sleeves were fabricated and tested, and the influence of two braiding methods was compared through FEM simulations. In addition, to make a first step towards implantability and smoothening the transition towards the use of fully biocompatible materials, all the actuators were coated with soft silicones. Although there is still a long way ahead, this works is paving the way towards the realisation of a more durable and reliable artificial cardiac fibre.