The development of a new set of tools is often a culminating point in humanity’s understanding and harnessing of nature. So-called “micro/nanomotors” are artificial machines that convert chemical energy to propulsion and have already served as building blocks for many futuristic applications. With the never-ending push toward miniaturization in every aspect, the combined recent efforts of multiple disciplines will create genuinely nanosized artificial machines, with all dimensions below 1,000 nm. However, there is a strong fundamental and methodological barrier in the creation and utilization of nanomachines that sets them apart from their microscale counterparts: the strong dominance of Brownian forces and the difficulty of analyzing their motion. In this review, we critically assess the new fully nanosized robots and compare them with current microrobot technology and applications.

一套新的工具的开发通常是人类对自然的理解和利用的最高点。所谓的“微型/纳米电机”是将化学能转化为推进力的人造机器，已经成为许多未来应用的基础。随着各个方面对微型化的无休止的推动，多个学科最近的共同努力将创造出真正的纳米尺寸的人造机器，其所有尺寸都在1000 nm以下。但是，在创建和使用纳米机器时，存在一个强大的基础和方法上的障碍，这使它们与微型机器相比有所不同：布朗力的强大支配力和分析其运动的难度。在这篇评论中