NANOTECHNOLOGY - NANOROBOTICS - NANOMEDICINE

A new foundations technology, NANOTECHNOLOGY, is sweeping into the reach of System Architects. It will have as profound and effect on the development of space, defense and commercial systems as the transistor and the integrated-circuit before it. Technology past, Nanotechnology now, and the role of Engineering designing Nanotechnology into products will be addressed. Nanotechnology is the control of atoms a molecule with precision. Nanotechnology is the engineering of molecularly precise structures - typically 0.1 microns or smaller - and, ultimately, molecular machines or components. Nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots of the size of few hundred nanometers and below consisting of components of nanoscale or molecular size. More specifically, nanorobotics refers to the still largely hypothetical nanotechnology engineering discipline of designing and building nanorobots (or nanobots, nanoids, nanites, nanonites) One of the most exciting discoveries within nanotechnology is the possibility of miniscule nanorobots that could perform wide range of medical operations in the body, front administering drugs to destroying harmful cells. This application of nanotechnology to medicine is nanomedicine. This chapter focuses oil the state of the art in the field of nanorobotics by describing various molecular level systems; its applications to medicine using collective robotics and associated desing and control issues