BIO-NANOROBOT

NanoRobots

Nanorobotics is emerging as a demanding field dealing with miniscule things at molecular level, and it is mainly used for medical applications. Nanorobots are nanoelectromechanical systems designed to perform a specific task with precision at nanoscale dimensions. Its advantage over conventional medicine lies on its size. The design of nanorobots is derived from biological models, specifically in the behaviour of bacteria. The various components in the nanorobot design may include onboard sensors, motors, manipulators, power supplies, and molecular computers.

The idea of introducing small submarines through the blood vessels has been

captured in many films. But the blood at nanoscale becomes viscous and sticky fluid which does not let the submarine to drive along the vessels. Another phenomenon that would not let the submarine to travel is the Brownian movement of the molecules; the collisions between molecules are incontrollable and unpredictable. Nanorobot Control Design (NCD) simulator was developed, which is software for nanorobots in environments with fluids dominated by Brownian motion and viscous rather than inertial forces.

Bacteria travel to the food sources and move away from the areas where they

detected dangerous substances. They have a kind of sensors spread through their cellular wall which detect the food and transmit signals to the motors that control the rotation of the flagella. As higher is the concentration of the molecules, the faster the bacteria will travel to the area where the nutrients are. If they found a place with dangerous substances like a salt concentration area, the sensors stop them with the flagella, and change their direction. They made a valance between the positive and negative molecules that they found and if the valance is positive they continue travelling forward, and if it is negative they turn around.

Nanorobots have chemical sensors which detect the target molecules. As a

response they would emit a power signal proportional to the detected amount. This signal would arrive to a programmed microprocessor which controls the direction and velocity of the nanorobot. This system would maintain the robot in the pursuit of its objective. Nanorobots allow drugs of nanosize to be used in lower concentration and have an earlier onset of therapeutic action. It also provides materials for controlled drug delivery

by directing carriers to a specific location.

The nanorobots can be attacked by the host’s immune system. To avoid that, the best choice is to have an exterior coating of passive diamond. The smoother and flawless the coating, the lesser is the reaction from the body’s immune system.

Introduction to Bio-inspired nanorobots

The engineering of molecular products needs to be carried out by robotic devices, which have been termed nanorobots [Freitas, 1999, 2003]. A nanorobot is essentially a controllable machine at the nano meter or molecular scale that is composed of nano-scale components and algorithmically responds to input forces and information. The field of

nanorobotics studies the design, manufacturing, programming and control of the nanoscale robots.

Nanorobots would constitute any active structure (nano scale) capable of actuation, sensing, signaling, information processing, intelligence, and swarm behavior at nano scale. These functionalities could be illustrated individually or in combinations by a nano robot (swarm intelligence and co-operative behavior). So, there could be a whole genre of actuation and sensing or information processing nano robots having ability to interact and

influence matter at the nano scale.

Some of the characteristic abilities that are desirable for a nanorobot to function may include:

i.                   Swarm Intelligence – decentralization and distributive intelligence

ii.                Self assembly and replication – assemblage at nano scale and ‘nano maintenance.

iii.             iii.Nano Information processing and programmability – for programming and controlling nanorobots (autonomous nanorobots.

iv.              Nano to macro world interface architecture – an architecture enabling instant access to the nanorobots and its control and maintenance.

There are many differences between macro and nano-scale robots. However, they occur mainly in the basic laws that govern their dynamics. Macro scaled robots are essentially in the Newtonian mechanics domain whereas the laws governing nanorobots are in the molecular quantum mechanics domain. Furthermore, uncertainty plays a crucial role in nanorobotic systems. The fundamental barrier for dealing with uncertainty at the nano scale is imposed by the quantum and the statistical mechanics and thermal excitations. For a certain nano system at some particular temperature, there are positional uncertainties that Nanorobots with completely artificial components have not been realized yet.

The active area of research in this field is focused more on molecular machines, which are thoroughly inspired by nature’s way of doing things at nano scale. Mother Nature has her own set of molecular machines that have been working for millions of years, and have been optimized for performance and design over the ages As our knowledge and understanding of these numerous machines continues to increase, we now see a possibility of using the natural machines, or creating synthetic ones from scratch, using nature’s components. The main goal in the field of molecular machines is to use various biological elements — whose function at the cellular level creates motion, force or a signal — as machine components. These components perform their preprogrammed biological function in response to the specific physiochemical stimuli but in an artificial setting. In this way proteins and DNA could act as motors, mechanical joints, transmission elements, or sensors. If all these different components were assembled together in the proper proportion and orientation they would form nano devices with multiple degrees of freedom, able to apply forces and manipulate objects in the nanoscale world. The advantage of using nature's machine components is that they are highly efficient and reliable.

Nanorobotics is a field which calls for collaborative efforts between physicists,

chemists, biologists, computer scientists, engineers and other specialists to work towards this common objective. below  Figure details the various fields which come under the field of bio nanorobotics (this is just a representative figure and not exhaustive in nature). Currently this field is still developing, but several substantial steps have been taken by great researchers all over the world who are contributing to this ever challenging and exciting field. The ability to manipulate matter at the nano scale is one core applicationfor which nanorobots could be the technological solution. A lot has been written in the

literature about the significance and motivation behind constructing a nanorobot.

Below figure lists the most important components of a typical robotic system or machine assembly and the equivalence between macro and potential bionanocomponents.beyond the initial component characterization is the assembly of the components into robotic systems.

ROBOTS

Robots that can:

􀂅fly like a dragonfly

􀂅adhere to walls like a gecko,

􀂅reconfigure its body like an octopus

􀂅process complex 3D images

􀂅chemically generate and store energy

􀂅self-grow

􀂅self-replicate

􀂅self-repair upon injury

TYPES OF BIO-INSPIRED ROBOTS

A bio-inspired “soft” robot is:-

(a) capable of exhibiting substantial behavioral diversity (not only walk, run, and grasp, but also smile, cook, and cooperate with humans). In contrast, robots today exhibit a rather limited behavioral diversity: autonomous cars (b) can “only” speed up, slow down, or turn;toys

(c) cannot move as flexibly as animals; and most of our research platforms can only do specific tasks such as climbing

(d), or swimming in water and walking on land

(e). There are also robots with a somewhat higher but still limited behavioral diversity, such as Asimo .

(g) that can walk, run, wave, open doors, recognize objects and people, and interact in basic ways with humans; or the “dog robot” Aibo

(h) that can also walk, interact with people, and play soccer. Industrial robots, such as CNC machines, robot arms

(f), and automated factories

(i) can conduct many variations of movement, but they are designed for well-defined environments and lack bio-inspired mechanisms.

MY WORK