Nanomedicine Art Gallery
Image 133
Motile Parts-Assembly Nanorobot

The motile parts-assembly nanorobot (Image 133) has the ability to engage, move and turn within the framework (Image 134), and to use its two manipulators for parts handling in a manner consistent with current well-understood practices of macroscale parts-assembly robots. Outward clamps in the rear of the nanorobot engage the framework struts, providing not only physical support but positional registration as well as power and control signals. Early generations of the device will have no onboard control but rather will obey signals transmitted across the framework, which is just a simple three-dimensional mesh, originally with conductive paths for only a single circuit. Development of more careful designs with self-assisted assembly and a judicious selection of jigs and clamps may obviate the duplication of manipulators and permit a one-armed design. Nanodevices similar to this may help to build the earliest generations of medical nanorobots.