Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42497249›Full record

ArticleScience advances2026

Physics-constrained learning framework for trustworthy microrobot navigation autonomy.

Jiachi Zhao, Yamei Li, Yinghan Sun, Yun Wang, Aoji Zhu, Danjing Shi, Xiang Li, Qing Chen, Chunhui Yuan, Antoine Ferreira and 3 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Science advances, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors.

Jiachi ZhaoResearch Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.ORCID 0000-0003-2404-3104
Yamei LiResearch Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.ORCID 0000-0002-0084-7979
Yinghan SunResearch Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.ORCID 0009-0008-2510-7185
Yun WangResearch Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.ORCID 0009-0002-3552-0869
Aoji ZhuResearch Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.ORCID 0000-0002-1281-8892
Danjing ShiResearch Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.ORCID 0009-0007-9905-9246
Xiang LiDepartment of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0002-0699-1904
Qing ChenDepartment of General Surgery, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0003-1094-3515
Chunhui YuanDepartment of General Surgery, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0003-1427-1023
Antoine FerreiraINSA Centre Val de Loire, Laboratoire PRISME, Bourges, France.ORCID 0000-0001-6295-3876
Li ZhangDepartment of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong.ORCID 0000-0003-1152-8962
Kai-Leung YungResearch Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.ORCID 0000-0001-9091-6140
Lidong YangResearch Institute for Advanced Manufacturing, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong.ORCID 0000-0002-5757-7885

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Machine learning has become an emerging paradigm for microrobotics, enabling autonomous micro-/nanorobot navigation in complex and highly disturbed environments without requirements of precise models. However, the state-of-the-art learning-based methods adopt "black-box" neural networks (NNs), which raises critical concerns about the trustworthiness of the generated navigation policies, especially for biomedical scenarios. Motivated to address this issue, we propose a physics-constrained learning framework that embeds deterministic physical laws into network architectures to achieve trustworthy microrobot navigation. Instead of learning from scratch, we explicitly encode the monotonic relationships of kinematics and safety rules into NNs. These constraints serve as structural inductive biases, theoretically guaranteeing that navigation policies operate strictly within the trustworthy action domains. Experiments demonstrate that microrobots can autonomously reach random targets without collision with obstacles during long-time and long-distance navigation, proving our framework's reliability owing to its explainable nature. This work can bridge the gap between data-driven performance and rigorous safety requirements, constituting a meaningful step toward trustworthy artificial intelligence-empowered microrobotics.

Identifiers

PMID42497249
PMCPMC13440287

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.