Robot-aided electrospinning toward intelligent biomedical engineering

Abstract

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.

Large-Area Laying of Soft Textile Power Generators for the Realization of Body Heat Harvesting Clothing

“…Although flexible TEGs can be manufactured through various processes [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22], each of the aforementioned conventional technologies has limitations such as cost, toxicity, complicated processes, yield issues on products, and difficulty in integrating with actual clothing. Furthermore, the power of TEGs from the conventional processes is restricted by the small generator size.…”

The Place of Electrospinning in Separation Science and Biomedical Engineering

“…It is important to note that the electrospinning process depends on several parameters, and the precise control of each parameter directly affects the morphology of the nanofibers [1,2,8,[10][11][12][13][14]. Given the expected complexity of in vivo nanofiber scaffolds, obtaining such biocompatibility, biodegradability, nontoxicity, and structural integrity scaffolds precisely using traditional electrospinning technique is challenging due to the unplanned randomly intertwined nanofibers [92]. To precisely control the fiber orientation and electrospinning diameter to produce thinner 3D fibers, an in-depth understanding of controlled fabrication, electrospinning parameters, properties, and functioning of electrospun materials is required to overcome the limitations.…”

“…The current trend is the emerging robotics technology (3D printing, 3D bioplotting, nanoimprinting, etc.) that has immensely benefited the biofabrication process by improving the flexibility, accuracy, controllability, process parameters, nanofiber diameter, and the rate of nanofibers produced [92]. Currently, there is an overwhelming application of electrospunnanofiber scaffolds/sorbents in analytical field and separations science including cosmetics, as filter media, solid phase extraction (SPE) sorbent bed, purification devices, preconcentration devices, protective clothing, wound dressing, sensor devices, and healthcare systems [1,2,10,11,58,93].…”

Advances in Hybrid Fabrication toward Hierarchical Tissue Constructs

“…Automated 3D positioning is therefore expected to improve tissue maturation into more complex, functional ones. While developments in additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have driven much biofabrication research, other fabrication technologies such as electrospinning, [ 9 ] centrifugal spinning, [ 10 ] liquid–liquid centrifugal casting, [ 11 ] uniaxial freezing, [ 12 ] micromolding, [ 13 ] and electrochemical compaction [ 14 ] provide diverse manufacturing options for biomedical researchers. These approaches are also becoming increasingly automated and, as outlined in this review, are part of a greater trend of manufacturing technology hybridization for the creation of complex, hierarchical tissue constructs for biomedical applications.…”