Micro and Nano Robotics

At microscopic and nanoscopic scales, the physics of motion changes dramatically: inertia becomes negligible, viscosity dominates, and self-propulsion requires strategies fundamentally different from those used by larger swimmers. Researchers study how microorganisms like bacteria navigate complex fluid environments, and apply those physical principles to engineer synthetic micro- and nanomotors—particles that convert chemical energy or external fields into directed movement. Understanding how these active particles interact with one another and with confining geometries has opened pathways toward targeted drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, and environmental remediation. Open questions center on scaling propulsion mechanisms to ever-smaller sizes, coordinating collective behavior in dense suspensions, and making synthetic motors robust enough to operate in the chemically heterogeneous environments found inside living tissue.

Works

50,561

Total citations

875,720

Keywords

HydrodynamicsMicro/NanomotorsSelf-PropulsionColloidal ParticlesSwimming MicroorganismsBacterial Motion