Light‐Powered Microrobots: Challenges and Opportunities for Hard and Soft Responsive Microswimmers

Worldwide research in microrobotics has exploded in the past two decades,leading to the development of microrobots propelled in various manners. Despitesignicant advances in the eld and successful demonstration of a wide range ofapplications, microrobots have yet to become the preferred choice outside alaboratory environment. After introducing available microrobotic propulsion andcontrol mechanisms, microrobots that are manufactured and powered by lightare focused herein. Referring to pioneering works and recent interestingexamples, light is presented not only as a fabrication tool, by means of two-photon polymerization direct laser writing, but also as an actuator for micro-robots in both hard and soft stimuli–responsive polymers. In this scenario, anumber of challenges that yet prevent polymeric light-powered microrobots fromreaching their full potential are identied, whereas potential solutions to over-come said challenges are suggested. As an outlook, a number of real-worldapplications that light-powered microrobots should be particularly suited for arementioned, together with the advances needed for them to achieve such pur-poses. An interdisciplinary approach combining materials science, microfabri-cation, photonics, and data science should be conducive to the next generation ofmicrorobots and will ultimately foster the translation of microrobotic applicationsinto the real world.