Nano robotics

Nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or close to the scale of a nanometre (10-9 metres).

More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the still largely theoretical nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots.

Nanorobots (nanobots or nanoids) are typically devices ranging in size from 0.1-10 micrometres and constructed of nanoscale or molecular components.

As no artificial non-biological nanorobots have so far been created, they remain a hypothetical concept at this time.

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.