Bio-Nanorobotics: A Field Inspired by Nature - Biomimetics: Biologically Inspired Technologies - page 202

7.1 INTRODUCTION

The underlying principle of biomimetics deals with the understanding, conceptualization, and
mimicking nature's way of handling various problems and situations. Nature has inspired mankind
for ages and has been a key source from which we can learn and adapt. Natural processes are
extremely efficient in terms of energy and material usage and provide us with many inspiring and
thought provoking designs and principles. This chapter discusses biomimetics at the nano-scale,
where we talk about nanorobotics and its design principles, which are inspired by nature's way of
doing things at that scale.
Figure 7.1 describes the biomimetics principle and details the various aspects of mimetics. It
explains the mimetics at two levels when nano-scale is considered. One is the '' machine nanomi-
metics '' principle meaning the creation of nanomachine components inspired by the equivalent
machine components at the macro-scale and the other is the '' bionanomimetics '' principle where
biological entities such as proteins and DNA are used to create the nanomachine components. The
field of nanorobotics hence encapsulates these two mimetic principles and inherits their various
characteristics, design logic, and advantages.
Nanotechnology can best be defined as a description of activities at the level of atoms and
molecules that have applications in the real world. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, that is,
about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair, or ten times the diameter of a hydrogen atom. The
size-related challenge is the ability to measure, manipulate, and assemble matter with features on
the scale of 1 to 100 nm. In order to achieve cost-effectiveness in nanotechnology, it will be
necessary to automate molecular manufacturing. The engineering of molecular products needs to be
carried out by robotic devices, which have been termed nanorobots (Freitas, 1999, 2003).
A nanorobot is essentially a controllable machine at the nanometer or molecular scale that is
composed of nano-scale components and algorithmically responds to input forces and information.

Design and Mechanisms
(revolute joint, actuators)

Materials
(proteins and DNA)

Biomimetics

Nature Machine

Characteristics
(self-assembly, self-
replication, self-healing)

Processes
(sensing, actuation,
energy production)

Usability range
(applicability in diverse
enviroments)

Characteristics
(durability, rigidity)

Machinenano
mimetics

Bio-nanomimetics

Bio-nanorobotics

Figure 7.1 (See color insert following page 302) Biomimetics — bio-nanorobotics, inspired by nature and

machine.