Nano Robots in Medicine: A Review

Abstract

In coming years, nanotechnology is likely to have a significant impact in different fields likemedicine and electronics. Nanorobotics is emerging as a demanding field dealing withminiscule things at molecular level. Nano robots perform a specific task with precision atnanoscale dimensions. Nano robots are especially used for studies on Alzheimer disease andcancer treatments. These can be seen as the first Nano medicines, with potential application inmedicine. Present day treatment includes surgeries which are considered outdated whencompared to today’s technology.

A Brief Review on Challenges in Design and Development of Nanorobots for Medical Applications

“…The emergence of biomolecular science and modern manufacturing methods helps advance system miniaturization from micro to nanoelectronics. In recent years, many clinical procedures have been improved with the aid of microdevices in surgery and treatments [6][7][8][9]17,18]. This section will discuss the various challenges in the design and development of nanorobots.…”

“…Currently, mobile phones are proving to be a useful feedback device in accomplishing data transmission for communication, control, and energy supply inside the body. In addition, the emergence of new materials and their application in fabricating sensors and actuators has resulted in devices in the nanoscale range [6][7][8][9]. Due to the potential for nanorobots to work individually or in swarms in a wide variety of applications, ranging from medicine, environmental surveillance and monitoring, armed forces, and many more emerging applications, it is essential to conduct a review on the existing state-of-the-art nanorobotic systems [1,10,11].…”

“…In all of these applications, the most important requirement is nanorobots to deliver the required drug to the target sites. Drug delivery is one of the key aspects in operations such as repairing tissues, cleaning blood vessels and airways, and transporting and delivering drugs to infected cells [8]. Additionally, nanorobots have aided dentists in carrying out complicated operations at a microscopic level with enhanced precision [14,15].…”

“…Due to the viscous nature of blood at the nanoscale, it is nearly impossible for the drug-carrying nanorobots to pass through blood vessels. The Brownian movement of the molecules causes collisions between molecules, and therefore the behaviour of the nanorobot becomes unpredictable and uncontrollable [8]. This instability has been one major limitation and a critical challenge that researchers are attempting to overcome.…”

“…The information regarding microrobots that appears in this study is applicable to nanorobots as well. Nanorobots must be highly effective, controllable, economical in mass production, and fully operational with minimal monitoring [8]. However, they must also be small enough not to deteriorate living tissues physically upon entering the body, and they must be large enough to handle both endogenous and exogenous signals from multiple sensing systems [19].…”