Development of 3D‐Printed Magnetic Micro‐Nanorobots for Targeted Therapeutics: the State of Art

Abstract

Micro‐/nanorobots (mn‐robots), inspired by the versatile mechanisms found in natural microorganisms, show great potential in enabling innovative bio‐applications. The 3D‐printed magnetic mn‐robots are substantially advanced to swim in vivo and to carry and release therapeutic agents in a controlled manner. To understand the state of the art of such robots and identify their development trend, this article presents a comprehensive and systematic review of the recent works on development of magnetic robots and their applications in biomedical engineering, with a particular focus on targeted therapeutic delivery. The developments in materials, fabrications, actuations, and applications with design for magnetic mn‐robots are reviewed, and it is aimed to discover the limitations of the existing works and to identify the knowledge gap, thereby deriving future research directions on developing magnetic mn‐robots, especially for their applications in targeted therapeutic delivery.

Keywords

• biocompatibility
• biodegradable materials
• design and actuation
• literature survey
• magnetic
• micro-/nanorobots