Australian medical engineers say they are on the verge of a breakthrough, after the transplant of a fully bionic heart.

The device was designed by at the Queensland University of Technology in 2001, and has now been successfully transplanted into a sheep.

The metal organ contains a small turbine inside to pump blood around the body and lungs, without the traditional pulsing action of a biological heart.

The team says it should last for at least 10 years inside the body, and could extend the time that patients can wait for heart transplants.

The device also represents a clear improvement on previous designs, which were larger, prone to damage, or had limited pumping ability.

Human trials could begin within three years.

A crowdfunding campaign called The Common Good managed to raise $5 million to get the project to this stage.

Cardiac surgeon Dr Billy Cohn was part of the 25-person team behind the effort to implant the artificial heart in a sheep earlier this year.

“Sheep represent the chest size of women and children,” he said.

“No total artificial hearts has been small enough to fit - this device did and worked perfectly.”

The sheep had its natural heart entirely removed, replaced with a robotic version, and as up and walking around just six hours later.

“This isn't research - this is revolution,” Professor Fraser from the Prince Charles Hospital at Chermside on Brisbane's northside told the ABC.

“This is not just taking a tablet, changing blood pressure by a couple of points - we're on the brink of a medical breakthrough that will change lives.”