The rapid development of robotics offers new opportunities for the traditional biofabrication in higher accuracy and controllability, which provides great potentials for the intelligent biomedical engineering. This paper reviews the state of the art of robotics in a widely used biomaterial fabrication process, i.e., electrospinning, including its working principle, main applications, challenges, and prospects. First, the principle and technique of electrospinning are introduced by categorizing it to melt electrospinning, solution electrospinning, and near-field electrospinning. Then, the applications of electrospinning in biomedical engineering are introduced briefly from the aspects of drug delivery, tissue engineering, and wound dressing. After that, we conclude the existing problems in traditional electrospinning such as low production, rough nanofibers, and uncontrolled morphology, and then discuss how those problems are addressed by robotics via four case studies. Lastly, the challenges and outlooks of robotics in electrospinning are discussed and prospected.

Untethered microrobot has been regarded as one of the most powerful tool for performing specific in vitro/vivo tasks, especially magnetic actuated microrobot owing to its biocompatible energy source. However, despite numerous design and fabrication technologies of magnetic microrobot have been developed, the improvement of magnetic actuation manner reaches the limit, which mainly relies on the specific structure design (helix) or strong gradient magnetic field to realize locomotion. Inspired from surface cilia dependent paramecium swimming, this paper reports a new self-assembly magnetic actuation concept design for bulk biomaterial motion based on the partial asymmetrical hetero-function of magnetic chain units. Compared with existing design and fabrication of magnetic microrobot actuators, our proposed self-assembly magnetic chain unit method is succinct, economical, structure unconstrained and material unconstrained. In this work, the tanglesome bulk fiber fabrication based on flow-focusing microcapillary system is firstly introduced, which is utilized for structure unconstrained and material unconstrained actuation demonstration. Secondly, the six degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) electromagnetic coil system is proposed for presenting the magnetic actuation based on self-assembly magnetic chain units. After that, the self-assembly mechanism and magnetic control mechanism are developed to explain the fabrication and actuation procedure. Finally, the self-assembled magnetic chain units can achieve up to 150 μm length during the fabrication process, which can actuate bulk biomaterial with much larger size than itself. The self-assembly magnetic chain unit and actuation experimental results verify the feasibility and practicability of the above-mentioned concepts. This research opens new prospects for magnetic microrobot actuation, which is expected to advance the biomedical area, such as for in vitro/vivo targeted therapy and organ-on-a-chip research.

The helical microstructure has been regarded as one of the essential geometrical shapes widely utilized in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and lab on chip systems. Different manufacture methods for helical microstructures attracted the researchers' attention due to their respective advantages. Inspired by traditional machining techniques, this paper reports a new manufacture method for accurate three dimensional (3D) helical microstructures based on in-situ scanning electron microscope (SEM) nanorobotic manipulation system. Compared with existing manufacture techniques, our proposed method is laconic, precise and material unconstrained. Besides, in-situ force and electric measurement can be realized immediately after the helical microstructure being manufactured. In this work, the system with three degree-of-freedoms (DOFs) nanorobotic manipulator integrated inside SEM is firstly introduced. Secondly, the 3D manufacture method with proportional integral derivative (PID) control is proposed to fabricate the desired helical microstructures. After that, the helical microstructures are manufactured and the manufacturing accuracy is analyzed. The manufacturing accuracy can be controlled within 10 micrometers. Finally, the force and electric demarcation of the fabricated helical microstructure is conducted to excavate the potential adhibition in in-situ SEM force and electric measurement, components for MEMS and lab on chip systems, etc. This research opens new prospects for the precise in-situ 3D manufacture of helical microstructures via the nanorobotic system, which is expected to give a long-term impact on MEMS, lab on chip systems, telecommunications, and so on.

Presents corrections to the declaration of equal contribution that was missed in the above named paper.