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An overview of magnetic micro-robot systems for biomedical applications

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Abstract

Untethered and wirelessly-controlled micro-robots have been catching substantial attention for a long time due to their great potentials in biomedical areas. Their small sizes and property of wireless magnetic actuation and control make them fit in tiny and closed environments both in vitro and in vivo such as lab-on-a-chip and human blood vessels for micromanipulations, minimum/non-invasive theoretical and diagnostic applications, respectively. In recent years, micro-robots driven by magnetic fields become a hotspot due to their good controllability and motion performance they have shown in both wet and dry environments. And they hardly bring harm under magnetic actuation and control, which qualify them especially for biomedical applications. This paper reviews the state of the art of hjbvmagnetic-micro-robot systems, including the related knowledge and theories, design works of magnetic micro-robots and magnetic navigation systems. For a straightforward understanding, several types of magnetic micro-robot systems are presented. And some applications of magnetic micro-robot systems are introduced at the end to show their great potentials. However, for further developments, many obstacles still need to be solved.

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Notes

  1. In the paper, if without specialized indication, the bold font means three dimensional column vector.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61327802) and the Youth Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation (No. 61203208).

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    1. Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and Technology, School of Mechanical and Electric Engineering, Soochow University, 178 Gan-Jiang Road (East), Gu-Su District, Suzhou, 215000, China

      Liang Zheng, Li-guo Chen, Hai-bo Huang, Xiang-peng Li & Lei-lei Zhang

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    1. Liang Zheng
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    Correspondence to Hai-bo Huang.

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    Liang Zheng and Li-guo Chen have contributed equally to this paper.

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    Zheng, L., Chen, Lg., Huang, Hb. et al. An overview of magnetic micro-robot systems for biomedical applications. Microsyst Technol 22, 2371–2387 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-016-2948-6

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