Micro- and nanorobots based sensing and biosensing

Synthetic micro- and nanorobots have attracted considerable attentions for their potential applications in environment, biomedicine and microengineering. In this review, we summarize the recent works on micro/nanorobots based sensing and biosensing according to different mechanisms: motion based sensing, electrochemical sensing with micro/nanorobots and fluorescent, electrochemiluminescent, colorimetric sensing with micro/nanorobots. Micro/nanorobots offer a convenient and active detection for nucleic acid, protein, glucose, heavy metal ions, etc. in solution and surrounding atmosphere. Furthermore, the detection sensitivity and efficiency has been significantly improved due to the stirring in solution by the motion of micro/nanorobots.