Micro-Robots/Microswimmers for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Microfluidic platforms, lab-on-a-chip devices, and microswimmers of different kinds attract researchers for various biomedical applications. Microswimmers are now slowly changing many aspects of biomedical and health care sectors. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of different types of microswimmers and microswimmer-based devices for biomedical and health care applications. The mobile robots of microscale size and operated with the on-board approach are best suited for biomedical applications. The chapter discusses the different types of propulsion mechanisms and existing fabrication techniques for a micro-robot/microswimmer. The biomedical applications of micro-robots are divided into three categories: delivery, surgery, and sensing. The chapter describes these applications of micro-robots in detail. It also discusses the existing challenges and future potential of micro-robots and microswimmers. The challenges include precise and safe locomotion and targeting and minimizing the power consumption for sensing, locomotion, data transfer, and computation.