1 Robots Inside Designing and Controlling Medical Nanorobots Chris Phoenix Director of Research (on sabbatical), Center for Responsible Nanotechnology
2 My History Drexler's nanotech class, Stanford, 1988 MSCS '91 Software and dyslexia careers , coauthored "Vasculoid" with Robert Freitas 2002, co-founded Center for Responsible Nanotechnology
3 NanoMedicoTelecommunications
4 What is a robot? A machine with programmable behavior
5 Today's New Molecular Technologies Single-molecule sensors Energy transducers Molecular containers Coupled devices
6 "Sorting Rotor"
7 Future: Molecular Manufacturing Engineered molecular machines Bottom-up construction Small products Large quantities High performance Result? Revolution; probably disruption… Bigger choices.
8 Nanofactory images lizardfire.com/ html_nano/ nano.html
9 Medical problems to solve Biocompatibility Power supply Sensing Heat dissipation Communication
10 In-Body Robots Micro-devices Hormone pumps Pacemakers Surgical robots Catheters Molecular constructions Anti-cancer packages Liposomes
11 Future Robots ~1-10 micron^3 Advanced functionality Sensing Molecular intervention Functional intervention 10 pW per robot (cell ~30 pW) 10^11 robots per body micron separation Far more data than bandwidth
12 Medicine Is Hard Systems of systems Environment and homeostasis Pathogens Pervasive degeneration Disease identification
13 Communication Is Key Learn medical status Control robot behavior Provide robot infrastructure Location awareness Coordination
14 Sensory Capabilities Molecule detection: 10^7 types per cubic- micron detector Displacement, motion, force Pressure, sound Temperature Electric, magnetic Cell structure See Nanomedicine Ch. 4
15 Size / Speed / Sensitivity Temperature 57 nm^3, 1 nsec, 31 mK 1E9 nm^3, 100 usec, 1 uK Single-proton massometer 1E5 nm^3 10 usec cycle time? 10 pm, 10 pN
16 Communication Methods To Nanorobots Chemical Acoustic Electromagnetic Physical network/cables Physiological monitoring See Nanomedicine Ch. 7
17 Communication Methods From Nanorobots Chemical (short-range, or externally processed) Acoustic (short-range) Electromagnetic (collective only) Physiological stimulation Physical network/cables
18 Summary Acoustic 100-micron distance 100 MHz frequency = 60,000 pW A few pW = a few kb/second Radio 10^6 bits/sec Incoming only
19 Bigger Questions Therapy vs. Enhancement e.g. Respirocytes for SCUBA diving Patient-medibot interaction Especially neural stimulation Destructive uses of medical technology
20 Resources Me:
21 Roadmaps and Bootstrapping Foresight/Battelle/Drexler: mainly biopolymer Freitas/Merkle: direct to diamondoid Increasingly small manufacturing Molecular building blocks Biopolymer/Silica
22 How soon? Cost probably drops with Moore’s Law Exponentially and rapidly Tech trends without forcing: three decades? …till it would be achieved with minimal effort Thus, if $1B now: $1M in one decade??? Who will want it, and when will they realize? How fast can a "Nanhattan project" go?