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Nanorobotics

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Nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or close to the microscopic scale of a nanometre (10-9 metres). More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the still largely hypothetical nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots. Nanorobots (nanobots, nanoids, nanites or nanonites) would be typically devices ranging in size from 0.1-10 micrometers and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components. As no artificial non-biological nanorobots have yet been created, they remain a hypothetical concept.

Another definition sometimes used is a robot which allows precision interactions with nanoscale objects, or can manipulate with nanoscale resolution. Following this definition even a large apparatus such as an atomic force microscope can be considered a nanorobotic instrument when configured to perform nanomanipulation. Also macroscale robots or microrobots which can move with nanoscale precision can also be considered nanorobots.

Nanomachines are largely in the research-and-development phase, but some primitive molecular machines have been tested. An example is a sensor having a switch approximately 1.5 nanometers across, capable of counting specific molecules in a chemical sample. The first useful applications of nanomachines, if such are ever built, might be in medical technology, where they might be used to identify cancer cells and destroy them. Another potential application is the detection of toxic chemicals, and the measurement of their concentrations, in the environment. Recently, Rice University has demonstrated a single-molecule car which is developed by a chemical process and includes buckyballs for wheels. It is actuated by controlling the environmental temperature and by positioning a scanning tunneling microscope tip.

Nanorobotics theory

Since nanorobots would be microscopic in size, it would probably be necessary for very large numbers of them to work together to perform microscopic and macroscopic tasks. These nanorobot swarms, both those which are incapable of replication (as in utility fog) and those which are capable of unconstrained replication in the natural environment (as in grey goo and its less common variants), are found in many science fiction stories, such as the Borg nanoprobes in Star Trek. The word "nanobot" (also "nanite", "nanogene", or "nanoant") is often used to indicate this fictional context and is an informal or even pejorative term to refer to the engineering concept of nanorobots. The word nanorobot is the correct technical term in the nonfictional context of serious engineering studies.[citation needed]

Some proponents of nanorobotics, in reaction to the grey goo scare scenarios that they earlier helped to propagate, hold the view that nanorobots capable of replication outside of a restricted factory environment do not form a necessary part of a purported productive nanotechnology, and that the process of self-replication, if it were ever to be developed, could be made inherently safe. They further assert that free-foraging replicators are in fact absent from their current plans for developing and using molecular manufacturing. [1] [2]


In such plans, future medical nanotechnology has been posited to employ nanorobots injected into the patient to perform treatment on a cellular level. Such nanorobots intended for use in medicine are posited to be non-replicating, as replication would needlessly increase device complexity, reduce reliability, and interfere with the medical mission. Instead, medical nanorobots are posited to be manufactured in hypothetical, carefully controlled nanofactories in which nanoscale machines would be solidly integrated into a supposed desktop-scale machine that would build macroscopic products.[citation needed]

The most detailed discussions of nanorobotics, including specific design issues such as sensing, power communication, navigation, manipulation, locomotion, and onboard computation, have been presented in the medical context of nanomedicine by Robert Freitas. Although much of these discussions remain at the level of unbuildable generality and do not approach the level of detailed engineering, the Nanofactory Collaboration[3], founded by Robert Freitas and Ralph Merkle in 2000, is a focused ongoing effort involving 23 researchers from 10 organizations and 4 countries that is developing a practical research agenda[4] specifically aimed at developing positionally-controlled diamond mechanosynthesis and a diamondoid nanofactory that would be capable of building diamondoid medical nanorobots.

Nubot

Main article: DNA machine

Nubot is an abbreviation for "Nucleic Acid Robots." Nubots are synthetic robotics devices at the nanoscale. Representative nubots include the several DNA walkers reported by Ned Seeman's group at NYU, Niles Pierce's group at Caltech, John Reif's group at Duke University, Chengde Mao's group at Purdue, and Andrew Turberfield's group at the University of Oxford.

Nanobots in fiction

Main article: Nanotechnology in fiction

Nanobots have been a recurring theme in many science-fiction novels, sci-fi shows and movies, such as the sci-fi show Red Dwarf where they are used to manufacture a new arm for Dave Lister from his excess body tissue. In the popular video game series Metal Gear Solid, many characters and soldiers in general, have "nanomachines" in their bloodstream. They are used as a healing mechanism in the Sony PlayStation series Ratchet and Clank. In the game System Shock 2, "nanites" are used as currency as well as a type of weapon ammo. In the movie Agent Cody Banks, Dr. Brinkman attempts to use ice cubes to distribute nanobots and destroy the world, but is killed by the nanobots when one of these ice cubes is placed in his mouth. In the 2008 series of Knight Rider, the Knight Industries Three Thousand has a skin capable of regenerating and rebuilding itself with the help of Nanobots. Nanobots were also featured during the Sci-Fi Channel era of Mystery Science Theater 3000, where they were known as "nanites." They were depicted on the show as microscopic, bug-like, freestanding robots with distinct personalities, including a hairdresser and union foreman. In Stargate: Atlantis there is a race of machines called the "Asurans" or "Replicators" whose bodies are entirely built of nanites. The first person shooter Crysis includes a suit that consists of nanorobots, which replenish armor, health, enhance strength, speed and even enable active camouflage.

Potential applications

See also

References

  1. ^ Zyvex: "Self replication and nanotechnology" "artificial self replicating systems will only function in carefully controlled artificial environments ... While self replicating systems are the key to low cost, there is no need (and little desire) to have such systems function in the outside world. Instead, in an artificial and controlled environment they can manufacture simpler and more rugged systems that can then be transferred to their final destination. ... The resulting medical device will be simpler, smaller, more efficient and more precisely designed for the task at hand than a device designed to perform the same function and self replicate. ... A single device able to do [both] would be harder to design and less efficient."
  2. ^ "Foresight Guidelines for Responsible Nanotechnology Development" "Autonomous self-replicating assemblers are not necessary to achieve significant manufacturing capabilities." "The simplest, most efficient, and safest approach to productive nanosystems is to make specialized nanoscale tools and put them together in factories big enough to make what is needed. ... The machines in this would work like the conveyor belts and assembly robots in a factory, doing similar jobs. If you pulled one of these machines out of the system, it would pose no risk, and be as inert as a light bulb pulled from its socket."
  3. ^ Nanofactory
  4. ^ Positional Diamondoid Molecular Manufacturing
  5. ^ Nanotechnology in Cancer
  6. ^ Cancer-fighting technology
  7. ^ Drug delivery
  8. ^ Medical Design Technology
  9. ^ Neurosurgery
  10. ^ Economist: Swallow the Surgeon
  11. ^ BBC: Tiny motors may be big in surgery
  12. ^ Tiny robot useful for surgery
  13. ^ Drug Targeting
  14. ^ Nanorobots in Treatment of Diabetes
  15. ^ Nanorobotics for Diabetes
  16. ^ Wellness Engineering, Nanorobots, Diabetes
  17. ^ Couvreur, P. & Vauthier, C. (2006). "Nanotechnology: Intelligent Design to Treat Complex Disease". Pharmaceutical Research. 23 (7): 1417–1450. doi:10.1007/s11095-006-0284-8.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Fisher, B. (2008). "Biological Research in the Evolution of Cancer Surgery: A Personal Perspective". Cancer Research. 68 (24): 10007–10020. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-08-0186.
  19. ^ Cavalcanti, A., Shirinzadeh, B., Zhang, M. & Kretly, L.C. (2008). "Nanorobot Hardware Architecture for Medical Defense". Sensors. 8 (5): 2932–2958. doi:10.3390/s8052932.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
  20. ^ Hill, C., Amodeo, A., Joseph, J.V. & Patel, H.R.H. (2008). "Nano- and microrobotics: how far is the reality?". Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy. 8 (12): 1891–1897. doi:10.1586/14737140.8.12.1891.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ Elder, J.B., Hoh, D.J., Oh, B.C., Heller, A.C., Liu, C.Y. & Apuzzo, M.L. (2008). "The future of cerebral surgery: a kaleidoscope of opportunities". Neurosurgery. 62 (6): 1555–1579. doi:10.1227/01.neu.0000333820.33143.0d.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Bibliography

  • K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation, ISBN 0-385-19973-2.

nanotecktonics

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