Optical-driven miniature robots: driving mechanism, applications and future trends

Miniature robots can complete complex tasks at the micro-scale, which have shown great application potential in fields such as biomedicine and environmental monitoring. As a renewable energy source, light is widely used in energy and information transmission. With the maturity of beam modulation and optical microscope technology, optical-driven miniature robots have become a hot topic in the field of miniature robotics due to their programmable nature, high resolution, non-contact nature, high precision, and good biocompatibility. This review introduces the driving mechanism of optical-driven miniature robots, summarizes the progress in their driving control and application capabilities, and looks forward to their future development trends. This review hopes to provide new ideas for the development of optical-driven miniature robots and promote their technological progress and applications. In the future, the cross-disciplinary integration of disciplines will help the research and development of the next generation of miniature robots.