Design and analysis of helical flagella propelled nanorobots

Abstract

Advancement in the field of nanorobotics has been facilitated by the current advances in nano-bio-technology and nanofabrication methods. The important uses of nanorobots are in advancing medical technology, healthcare and environment monitoring. In bio-medical applications, nanorobots need to swim in biological fluids flowing in narrow channels of few hundred nanometer size. The dominating effects in nanometer size domains are increased apparent viscosity and low Reynolds numbers which makes the design of a propulsion mechanism a challenging task. Micro and nano size biological organisms move by generating planar waves or rotating helical flagella. In the present work, design of propulsion with helical flagella is proposed and a generalized analytical model is developed, simulated and discussed. The performance parameters of the developed model viz. velocity and efficiency have been computed based on resistive force theory and compared with those of the model available in literature. Improved performance, feasibility and generality of the developed flagellar model have been discussed.

Nanorobotics in Medicine: A Systematic Review of Advances, Challenges, and Future Prospects with a Focus on Cell Therapy, Invasive Surgery, and Drug Delivery

“…[23] Recent research has proposed fluid-traveling nanorobots, which use flagellar motion patterns-akin to the propulsion method used by certain bacteria-to travel within the human body. These nanorobots, essentially microscale swimmers, can traverse the viscous environment of bodily fluids, delivering therapeutics directly to the targeted site [24], [25].…”