Chapter category: Nanomedicine
Navigation
Nanomedicine, Volume I: Basic Capabilities
Edited by: Robert A. Freitas, Jr.ISBN: 1-57059-680-8
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «
Chapter authors:
Robert A. Freitas
It is difficult to imagine any significant application of medical nanodevices which does not involve navigation, however crude. Devices intended to monitor somatic states, assemble artificial internal structures, remove tumors or foreign matter, combat infections, or perform repairs, must normally be extremely tissue- or cell-specific. Navigation is also required to execute many control protocols (Chapter 12), to locate dedicated energy, communication, or navigational helper organs, or to stationkeep and coordinate with other nanodevices. Even bloodborne nanorobots intended to operate solely at the systemic level—such as nanobiotics or immunocytes (Chapter 19) and respirocytes (artificial red cells;1400 Chapter 22)— must know if they have been prematurely ejected from the vasculature so that they may cease functioning or at least modify their activities. Perhaps the most important challenge of in vivo navigation is to determine how physicians may best direct nanorobots to specific target sites needing treatment within the human body. Two alternative strategies appear most likely to produce the best clinical results (both of which will be considered in this Chapter).
Additional chapters from this book:
Other Basic Capabilities
Robert A. Freitas
This final Chapter describes a miscellany of important technical capabilities that may prove useful in some or all medical nanodevices, in various scenarios or theaters of operation. Any one of the...
Manipulation and Locomotion
Robert A. Freitas
Manipulation and mobility are crucial basic capabilities in most classes of medical nanodevices. Manipulation includes handling fluids, biological objects such as tissue matrix fibers or cellular e...
Navigation
Robert A. Freitas
It is difficult to imagine any significant application of medical nanodevices which does not involve navigation, however crude. Devices intended to monitor somatic states, assemble artificial inter...
Communication
Robert A. Freitas
Communication is an important fundamental capability of medical nanorobots. At the most basic level, nanomachines must pass sensory and control data among internal subsystems to ensure stable and c...
Power
Robert A. Freitas
Device energetics may represent the most serious limitation in nanorobot design. Almost all medical nanodevices will be actively powered. Mechanical motions, pumping, chemical transformations and t...
Shapes and Metamorphic Surfaces
Robert A. Freitas
It has been asserted that nanomechanical systems fundamentally differ from systems of biological molecular machinery in their basic architecture—specifically, that nanomechanical components are sup...
Nanosensors and Nanoscale Scanning
Robert A. Freitas
Medical nanorobots need to acquire information from their environment to properly execute their assigned tasks. Such acquisition is achieved using onboard nanoscale sensors, or nanosensors, of vari...
Molecular Transport and Sortation
Robert A. Freitas
The human body consists of ~7 x 1027 atoms arranged in a highly aperiodic physical structure. Although 41 chemical elements are commonly found in the body’s construction (Table 3.1), CHON comprises...
Pathways to Molecular Manufacturing
Robert A. Freitas
Most contemporary industrial fabrication processes are based on “top-down” technologies, wherein small objects are sawn or machined from larger objects, or small features are imposed on larger obje...
The Prospect of Nanomedicine
Robert A. Freitas
The history of disease is vastly older than that of humankind itself. Indeed, disease and parasitism have been inseparable companions to life since the dawn of life on Earth. Fossilized bacteria si...
