Advances in Finite Element Analysis of External Field-Driven Micro/Nanorobots: A Review

Abstract

With the development of nanotechnology, micro/nanorobots (MNRs) have become promising medical tools given their advantages of unconstrained and precisely controlled navigation. However, given the complexity of MNRs’ dynamic biological environments and the limitations of current experimental methods, it remains challenging to simulate the motion mechanism, functional implementation strategy, and adaptability of MNRs in dynamic environments. Finite element analysis (FEA) plays an important role in MNR research; thorough review of state-of-the-art research on MNRs. FEA is used to simulate MNRs motion mechanism, and theoretical models combined with experimental results are proposed to explain the motion mechanism. FEA can reduce the error rate of experiments. Combined with the simulation results, the optimal scheme is selected for experiments, and a reliable design strategy of MNRs is obtained. FEA has become a more effective method to obtain the optimal design of MNRs for in vivo applications. Therefore, herein, the design and driving mechanism of MNRs, the different solutions proposed for complex dynamic environments, and the use of FEA in the related research are introduced by this review. The current challenges and future research directions of FEA combined with external field-driven MNRs are summarized.