The Nanobots Are Coming

Hat tip to Foresight's Nanodot blog for this pointer to an interesting PC Magazine article. Here's the scoop:

Carnegie Mellon University is building micro-bots with an eye toward nano-bots. According to the article, the CMU lab has a diverse set of equipment for fabricating and studying microscale structures. They are currently working on swimming and water-walking robots, with bacterial motors attached. The robots are micro, but the motors are nano -- an interesting hybrid.

The Nanodot story reports that professor Metin Sitti, who's working in the lab, said in 2004 that nanoassembly, nanomanufacturing, and hybrid robots would be 5-10 years out, and atomic and molecular scale manufacturing would arrive after 10 years. Sitti, by the way, is Chair of the IEEE Nanotechnology Council’s Technical Committee on Nanorobotics and Nanomanufacturing.

Keep in mind that nanomanufacturing and molecular manufacturing are more different than they sound. Nanomanufacturing is the National Nanotechnology Initiative's term for improved manufacture of nano-stuff -- whether atomically precise or not, and whether with the help of active nanomachines, passive template nanostructures, or something even more mundane -- basically, just one step beyond today's capabilities. Molecular manufacturing has a much tighter focus: using precise nanoscale mechanical systems to build more precise nanoscale mechanical systems.

Although molecular manufacturing has a specific and long-established meaning, similar-sounding terms can refer to much more primitive capabilities. So when Dr. Sitti said that the transition from nanomanufacturing to molecular scale manufacturing may happen around 2014, it's not clear from the Foresight report whether he meant full molecular manufacturing, but it seems safe to assume he was thinking in that direction. And of course, one of the most important points about molecular manufacturing is that once a certain level of technology is achieved, the rest can happen quickly. Sitti's projections seem consistent with CRN's timeline estimates -- which have frequently been criticized as being too aggressive. We'll see, soon enough.

Comments

[Richard Eckert]

Lockheed Martin to Design Nano Air Vehicle
Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories in Cherry Hill, NJ has been assigned by a defense contractor to design a remote-controlled nano air vehicle (NAV) to collect military intelligence on urban battlefields. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded the company a $1.7 million contract to design the tiny information gathering devices. Lockheed Martin’s team will design a device about the size and shape of a maple tree seed that will weigh 0.35 ounces.

The NAV is expected to fly using a one-bladed wing design and chemical rocket. The device will rotate in flight like a falling maple seed with its path guided by camera control. The NAV will transmit images that can be received by a small, handheld display. With an anticipated range of about 1,100 yards, the NAV will fly back to its controller for collection. Lockheed will use the contract to fund designing for prototypes of the NAV engine, airframe and flight control and communications systems. - Joao-Pierre Ruth

[Rocky Rawstern]

Not Nano:

"DARPAs Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) Program is a technology development and integration program to demonstrate the capability to develop an extremely small (<5 cm), ultra-lightweight (<10g) air vehicle capable of both hover and forward flight while carrying a 2 gram pay-load."

http://lmisgreen.lanl.gov/programs?c=view&id=05-01195&r=04841