Micro and Nano Robotics

At the scale of micrometers and below, the physics of motion changes fundamentally: inertia becomes negligible, thermal fluctuations dominate, and objects must swim rather than coast. Researchers study how biological swimmers like bacteria propel themselves through viscous fluids, and how synthetic counterparts — catalytic nanomotors and self-propelled colloidal particles — can be engineered to mimic or extend those capabilities. A central challenge is understanding how these active agents interact with complex, crowded environments, including living tissue, where collective behavior and fluid-structure coupling produce effects that bulk hydrodynamics cannot predict. Translating these insights into reliable biomedical tools — targeted drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, or sensing within the body — requires closing the gap between controlled laboratory systems and the messy, dynamic conditions of real biological settings.

Works

49,765

Total citations

863,304

Keywords

HydrodynamicsMicro/NanomotorsSelf-PropulsionColloidal ParticlesSwimming MicroorganismsBacterial Motion