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Engineering

Magnetically Driven Micro and Nanorobots

Huaijuan Zhou¹, Carmen C Mayorga-Martinez¹, Salvador Pané²

¹Center for Advanced Functional Nanorobots, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Technicka 5, 166 28 Prague 6, Czech Republic.

Chemical Reviews|March 31, 2021

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Summary

Magnetic micro/nanorobots (MagRobots) offer versatile, fuel-free control for microscale manipulation. This review covers their fundamental concepts, actuation, fabrication, and diverse applications, highlighting future perspectives.

Area of Science:

Robotics
Biotechnology
Materials Science

Background:

Micro and nanoswimmers can be controlled using chemicals, external fields, or biological cells.
Magnetic fields are favored for actuation due to remote control, fuel-free operation, and programmability.

Purpose of the Study:

To review fundamental concepts, advantages, and applications of magnetic micro/nanorobots (MagRobots).
To discuss magnetic field interactions, actuation mechanisms, fabrication techniques, and diverse applications of MagRobots.

Main Methods:

Review of literature on magnetic fields, magnetic materials, and manipulation setups.
Discussion of symmetry-breaking strategies for effective movement.
Exploration of actuation mechanisms including flagella-inspired and surface-walker models.

Main Results:

Magnetic fields enable precise control over micro/nanorobots for various tasks.
Diverse fabrication techniques exist for different MagRobot designs (spherical, helical, flexible, etc.).
MagRobots have applications in drug delivery, surgery, environmental remediation, and sensing.

Conclusions:

Magnetic micro/nanorobots are a promising technology with broad applications.
Further research is needed to address current challenges and advance magnetically powered miniaturized motors.

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Micro-manipulation

Magnetically Driven Micro And Nanorobots

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Magnetically Driven Micro and Nanorobots | JoVE Visualize