Editorial: Micro/nano motors and robots.

Abstract

paramagnetic nanoparticles into a vector-controlled microswarm with 3D collective motions by programming sawtooth magnetic fields. It can be flexibly switch horizonal swarm to vertical stand and hover in situ, and the wheel-like swarms endowed with multi-modal locomotion and loadcarrying capabilities. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2022.877964/full For single motor or robot, speed and direction control are the two most important properties. Indeed, with strong propulsion，the self-stirring effect of the microenvironment generated by the motors or robots will greatly improve their contact efficiency with a given target, thereby improving the efficiency, especially in biomedical applications, such as cell detection, drug delivery, DNA sensing, In addition to the utilize the propulsion, compare to traditional drug delivery systems usually rely on the passive diffusion, efficient direction control of micro/nano motors or robots means active targeted delivery which also plays key roles in the biomedical applications. In this context, Hua et al.have illustrated a magnetic-driven hydrogel microrobots as drug delivery system for drug delivery directly to the tumor site by magnetic field regulation to enhance the drug efficiency and reduce the side effects. Meanwhile, the selective inhibition of this system could be easily controlled by programming the strength of the magnetic field.