Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Heisenbergstr. 3, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany.
LENS, University of Florence, Via Nello Carrara 1, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
Adv Mater. 2020 May;32(20):e1906766. doi: 10.1002/adma.201906766. Epub 2020 Feb 13.
Mobile microrobotics has emerged as a new robotics field within the last decade to create untethered tiny robots that can access and operate in unprecedented, dangerous, or hard-to-reach small spaces noninvasively toward disruptive medical, biotechnology, desktop manufacturing, environmental remediation, and other potential applications. Magnetic and optical actuation methods are the most widely used actuation methods in mobile microrobotics currently, in addition to acoustic and biological (cell-driven) actuation approaches. The pros and cons of these actuation methods are reported here, depending on the given context. They can both enable long-range, fast, and precise actuation of single or a large number of microrobots in diverse environments. Magnetic actuation has unique potential for medical applications of microrobots inside nontransparent tissues at high penetration depths, while optical actuation is suitable for more biotechnology, lab-/organ-on-a-chip, and desktop manufacturing types of applications with much less surface penetration depth requirements or with transparent environments. Combining both methods in new robot designs can have a strong potential of combining the pros of both methods. There is still much progress needed in both actuation methods to realize the potential disruptive applications of mobile microrobots in real-world conditions.
移动微机器人技术是在过去十年中出现的一个新的机器人领域，旨在创建无需系绳的微型机器人，这些机器人可以非侵入性地进入和操作以前无法进入的、危险的或难以到达的小空间，从而实现颠覆性的医疗、生物技术、台式制造、环境修复和其他潜在应用。除了声学和生物（细胞驱动）驱动方法外，磁和光驱动方法是目前移动微机器人中最广泛使用的驱动方法。这里根据给定的上下文报告了这些驱动方法的优缺点。它们都可以在不同的环境中对单个或大量微机器人进行远程、快速和精确的驱动。磁驱动对于在高穿透深度的非透明组织内的微机器人的医学应用具有独特的潜力，而光驱动适用于更多的生物技术、实验室/芯片上器官和台式制造类型的应用，这些应用对表面穿透深度的要求较低或环境是透明的。在新的机器人设计中结合这两种方法具有结合这两种方法优点的强大潜力。在实际条件下实现移动微机器人的潜在颠覆性应用，这两种驱动方法都需要取得更多进展。
