A TINY robot that “hugs” a damaged heart to help it pump blood could save the lives of thousands of people in the future.

A prototype device has already been successfully tested on pigs and the soft-robotic device is designed to help failing hearts pump blood by giving the organ gentle squeezes – mimicking the cardiac muscle, according to a new study.

Researchers say the silicon-based device, which stiffens or relaxes when inflated with pressurised air, could prove to be a promising strategy for the development of assistive devices for heart failure which claims thousands of lives each year.

While so-called ventricular assist devices, or VADs, are currently used as a life-prolonging therapy, they are in constant contact with the blood – increasing a patient’s risk for infection, coagulation and stroke, and requiring the use of long-term blood-thinning drugs.

Seeking to pioneer a more effective device, Irish scientist Ellen Roche and colleagues at Harvard University in the US developed the device by replicating normal heart muscle behaviour, instead of disrupting it.