Nanorobotics

What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is a field of research and innovation concerned with building 'things' - generally,
materials and devices - on the scale of atoms and molecules. A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre. At
such scales, the ordinary rules of physics and chemistry no longer apply. For instance, materials'
characteristics, such as their colour, strength, conductivity and reactivity, can differ substantially
between the nanoscale and the macro. Carbon 'nanotubes' are 100 times stronger than steel but six
times lighter.

What Can Nanotechnology Do?

Nanotechnology is hailed as having the potential to increase the efficiency of energy consumption, help
clean the environment, and solve major health problems. It is said to be able to massively increase
manufacturing production at significantly reduced costs. Products of nanotechnology will be smaller,
cheaper, lighter yet more functional and require less energy and fewer raw materials to manufacture,
claim nanotech advocates.

Nanorobotics
Nanorobotics is an emerging technology field creating machines or robots whose components are at or
near the scale of a nanometer (10−9 meters). More specifically, nanorobotics (as opposed to
microrobotics) refers to the nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building
nanorobots, with devices ranging in size from 0.1 to 10 micrometres and constructed of nanoscale or
molecular components.

Nanomachines are largely in the research and development phase, but some primitive molecular
machines and nanomotors have been tested. An example is a sensor having a switch approximately 1.5
nanometers across, able to count specific molecules in the chemical sample. The first useful applications
of nanomachines may be in nanomedicine. For example, biological machines could be used to identify
and destroy cancer cells. Another potential application is the detection of toxic chemicals, and the
measurement of their concentrations, in the environment.

Since nano-robots 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.
Manufacturing approaches
Manufacturing nanomachines assembled from molecular components is a very challenging task.
Because of the level of difficulty, many engineers and scientists continue working cooperatively across
multidisciplinary approaches to achieve breakthroughs in this new area of development. Thus, it is quite
understandable the importance of the following distinct techniques currently applied towards
manufacturing nanorobots:

Biochip

The joint use of nanoelectronics, photolithography, and new biomaterials provides a possible approach
to manufacturing nanorobots for common medical uses, such as surgical instrumentation, diagnosis, and
drug delivery.This method for manufacturing on nanotechnology scale is in use in the electronics
industry since 2008.

Nubots

A nucleic acid robot (nubot) is an organic molecular machine at the nanoscale.[43] DNA structure can
provide means to assemble 2D and 3D nanomechanical devices. DNA based machines can be activated
using small molecules, proteins and other molecules of DNA. Biological circuit gates based on DNA
materials have been engineered as molecular machines to allow in-vitro drug delivery for targeted
health problems

3D printing

3D printing is the process by which a three-dimensional structure is built through the various processes
of additive manufacturing. Nanoscale 3D printing involves many of the same process, incorporated at a
much smaller scale. To print a structure in the 5-400 µm scale, the precision of the 3D printing machine
needs to be improved greatly. A two-step process of 3D printing, using a 3D printing and laser etched
plates method was incorporated as an improvement technique. To be more precise at a nanoscale, the
3D printing process uses a laser etching machine, which etches the details needed for the segments of
nanorobots into each plate. The plate is then transferred to the 3D printer, which fills the etched regions
with the desired nanoparticle. The 3D printing process is repeated until the nanorobot is built from the
bottom up. This 3D printing process has many benefits. First, it increases the overall accuracy of the
printing process. Second, it has the potential to create functional segments of a nanorobot.

Potential uses
Potential uses for nanorobotics in medicine include early diagnosis and targeted drug-delivery for
cancer, biomedical instrumentation, surgery, pharmacokinetics, monitoring of diabetes, and health care.

In such plans, future medical nanotechnology is expected to employ nanorobots injected into the
patient to perform work at a cellular level. Researchers at Harvard and MIT, however, have been able to
attach special RNA strands, measuring nearly 10 nm in diameter, to nanoparticles, filling them with a
chemotherapy drug. These RNA strands are attracted to cancer cells. When the nanoparticle encounters
a cancer cell, it adheres to it, and releases the drug into the cancer cell. This directed method of drug
delivery has great potential for treating cancer patients while avoiding negative effects