Nanorobotics

Motivation, Potential and Challenges

Kyle Swenson

Introduction

• Definition of nanorobotics• History and origin of nanorobotics• Current status of small robotics• Methods to build nanoscale components• Technical challenges in building nanoscale

components• Applications• Ethical concerns

Nanorobotics

• Two definitions– An automated or semi-automated device used in

the construction of nanorobots– An active structure at the nanoscale (1 nm to 1

µm) that has movement, sensing, signaling, information processing, or swarm behavior capabilities.

History and Origin of Nanorobotics

• Richard Feynman– 1959 lecture “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom”

• Manipulating matter at the atomic scale• “Swallowing the doctor.”

• Improvements in microscopy– Optical microscopes give about 200 nm of resolution– Scanning electron microscopes give about 1 nm of

resolution– Scanning probe microscopy (circa 1980)

• 0.01 nm to 0.1 nm of resolution

First Nanomanipulation

• In 1990s, D.M. Eigler and E.K. Schweizer at IBM– Positioned single atoms

with a scanning tunneling microscope

– First realization of nanomanipulation

– Used an ultra high vacuum (UHV) at about 4 °K

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/IBM_in_atoms.gif

Current Status of Small Robotics: Microrobotics

• Microrobotics– An active structure at the microscale (1 µm to 1 mm)

that has movement, sensing, signaling, information processing, or swarm behavior capabilities.

– Uses micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)– Examples

• Intelligent Small-World Autonomous Robots for Micro-manipulation (I-SWARM)

• NanoHand• ETH Microrobot• ETH Swimming Microrobot

I-SWARM• Purpose: Investigate robot

swarming technology• 3 legs that are

piezoelectrically actuated• Weighs 65 mg, volume of

23 mm3 • Solar cells for power (2.5

mW)• Flexible PCB with:

– IR communication module– Capacitors– ASIC– Locomotion module

I-SWARM: Diagram

1)Solar panel2)IR communications

module3)ASIC4)Capacitors5)Piezoelectric

module

NanoHand• Microgripper designed to grab

and accurately place a signal carbon nanotube

• Electrothermal principles• Can pick up and place objects

from about 100 nm to about 20 nm

• Easy to pick up objects, difficult to drop them– Intermolecular forces are much

stronger than gravity at this scale.– “Glue” the CNT in place using

electron beam-induced deposition

ETH Microrobot• Magnetic approach to moving

microrobots• Can only move along an

engineered substrate, limiting it’s usability

• The microrobot aligns itself depending on the orientation of the magnetic field

• A changing magnetic field causes the gap to narrow, and the spring gets compressed

• This force creates a frictional difference and the microrobot moves

ETH Swimming Microrobot• Based off flagellum

– Some bacteria (E. Coli) use flagella for propulsion

• In the presence of a small rotating magnetic field (1 – 2 mT) they can “swim” through water– 20 um/sec

• About 25 to 60 um long– Body: indium, gallium, arsenic

and chromium– Head: chrome, nickel and gold

Current Status of Small Robotics: Nanorobotics

• In the research and theoretical phase– Global research effort increased from $432 million in 1997 to

$3 billion in 2003– Expected to exceed $1 trillion in next 10 to 15 years

• Two primary research foci– Using macroscale tools to manipulate nanoscale objects

• Virtual reality representations of nanoscale objects• Adaptations of CAD tools

– Developing and investigating nanoscale components• Carbon nanotubes (CNT)• Pharmaceutical drug delivery mechanisms• DNA computation

Building Nanoscale Components

• Top down approach– Uses techniques similar to current microchip fabrication

• Lithography and etching

– Currently make MEMS in this way, potentially NEMS• Bottom up approach: placing individual molecules

(manually, self-assemblers, or a growing mechanism)– Synthetic– Biological– Combination

Building Nanoscale Components: Bottom Up Methodology

• Synthetic– Carbon nanotubes – Pharmaceutical drug delivery– Biomimetic

• Imitating nature (flagella)

• Biological– Nubots (Nucleic acid robots)

• Uses DNA, RNA, and proteins to build motors, transmission elements, and sensors.

• Combination– Generally use bacteria or proteins (e.g. E. Coli) to provide transportation,

signaling, or actuation mechanisms for a synthetic nanorobot.– Nanorobot would change conditions in the environment to get the

protein/bacteria to do what it needs to do.

Challenges Building Nanoscale Devices

• Physical and chemical properties of molecules aren’t completely understood at the nanoscale– Electrostatic, interatomic, and intermolecular forces dominate,

gravity is negligible.• The surface area effect

– As 3D objects shrink, their volumes decrease by , but their surface areas only decrease by a

– This drastically increases the amount of effort it takes to overcome frictional effects.

• Motion– Due to the surface area effect, moving is difficult.– Microorganisms don’t swim, they use drag (friction) forces to move

Challenges Building Nanoscale Devices

• Power– Can’t use conventional methods– Mimic biology

• Use ATP or pH difference to cause motion

• Communication– Nanorobotics will need some form of communication if they are to swarm– Potential for acoustic communication

• Between 10 MHz and 300 MHz• 100 micron distance• 10 kbits/sec

• Interdisciplinary by nature– Require chemists, physicists, molecular biologists, doctors, engineers

(electrical, computer, software, biological, chemical) to all work together efficiently

Application Areas for Nanorobotics

• Medical– Targeted pharmaceutical drugs

• Nanorobots could target specific cells (e.g. cancer) and release their payload (chemotherapy drugs) and drastically reduce side effects while increasing effectiveness

– Preventive medicine• Swarms of nanorobots could actively patrol for pathogens

in the body• Dentistry

– Active cleaning– Decay resistant teeth

Application areas for nanorobotics

• Medical– Tissue Regeneration

• Researchers at Rice University have used nanoparticles to “wield” chicken meat together

– Sensory Regeneration

• Sensors– Femtogram scales– Create synthetic biological sensor systems– Surveillance

Ethical concerns

• Patents– At what point is the line drawn between invention and nature?

• Privacy– Massive amount of personal information could be gained from

something we can’t see• Big knowledge gap between manufacturers and users

– Potential health issue disclosure• Human enhancement

– What is the limit?– Who benefits?

• Autonomous nanorobots– Uncontrolled replication

Questions?

Web Sources• http://

www.iris.ethz.ch/msrl/research/current/helical_swimmers/images/swimmer_robot.png

• http://www.emeraldinsight.com/content_images/fig/0490370401007.png

• http://www.emeraldinsight.com/content_images/fig/0490370401006.png

• http://www.emeraldinsight.com/content_images/fig/0490370401004.png

• http://cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2009/iswarm.jpg• http://

cdn.physorg.com/newman/gfx/news/hires/2009/iswarm4.jpg• http://phys.org/news170678733.html• http://

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_Plenty_of_Room_at_the_Bottom

• http://ida.lib.uidaho.edu:2065/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4264371

• http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-control.cgi/2005/056808.pdf

• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/07/IBM_in_atoms.gif• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_force_microscopy• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_probe_microscopy• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_tunneling_microscope• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_electron_microscope• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_nanotechnology• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bionanotechnology

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_Small_World_Autonomous_Robots_for_Micro-manipulation

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microelectromechanical_systems

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro_flying_robot

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbotics• http://www.inespe.org/schummer.pdf• http://www.capurro.de/nanoethics.html• http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/nanoro

bot6.htm• http://www.nanobot.info/• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_scale

_electronics• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biocomputers• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_computing• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_

Genes• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanomedicine• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanorobotics• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biorobot

Other Sources

Bogue, Robert. “Microrobots and Nanorobots: A Review of Recent Developments.” Okehampton, UK. 2010Kroeker, Krik L. “Medical Nanobots.” Sept 2009Patel, G. M. “Nanorobot: A Versatile Tool in Nanomedicine.” Jan 2006.Verma, Santosh and Chauhan, Rashi. “Nanorobotics in Denitsry- A Review.” 2013.Hogg, Tad and Freitas, Robert A. Jr. “Acoustic communication for medical nanobots.” 2012