COMPUTATIONAL TASKS IN MEDICAL NANOROBOTICS - Bio-Inspired and Nanoscale Integrated Computing - page 410

15.2.4.2. Computational Tasks. Besides the usual sensor, mobility, data
and power management tasks common to other nanorobots, chromallocyte
computers must also control Proboscis extension and variable rotation rates,
adjustment of adhesioregulatory surfaces [2k] on the Proboscis, pumping and fluid
gating through the Proboscis, funnel assembly extension and retraction motions,
and valving of materials into and out of the storage vaults. Locomotion also
requires protocols for diapedesis through capillary walls, ECM (extracellular
matrix) brachiation [1as] or grapple-mediated ciliary swimming [1at] through
acellular tissues spaces (including emergency use of the Proboscis), transit through
plasma and nuclear membranes [1aq], and nanapheresis [1n] or other nanorobot
extraction procedures. (Chromallocytes must also be capable of emergency auto-
excretion through the renal tubules as long as external acoustic power is still being
supplied to the patient, or they must have a capture protocol in which they can
allow themselves to be harmlessly phagocytosed and transported to lymph nodes
[2m] for subsequent removal by other nanorobots in a separate procedure.) The
position of the apical terminus of the Proboscis must be controlled during new
chromatin discharge to allow placement of new chromosomes near their optimum
territorial regions inside the nucleus, requiring integration of Proboscis position
information with sensor-derived information about the nanorobot's position
relative to the cell nucleus. Precise control, timing, and coordination with sensor
data is required to manage the release and subsequent recovery, via molecular
sorting rotors, of dozens of small-molecule engineered biological reagents that are
deployed in waves by the nanorobot to temporarily suppress various natural
processes such as mechanotransduction, apoptosis, and inflammation. The
computer must also guide nanorobot navigation [1an] to and from the target
cell by coordinating locomotion with real-time positional information possibly
received from a navigational microtransponder network [1au] that has been
preinstalled in the patient's body. (The navigational system itself, including its
installation and management, are a separate nanorobotic instrumentality that is
operated independently of the chromallocytes.)
Chromallocyte onboard computation and control is provided by a computer
system similar to that employed in the microbivore [5]. This includes a tenfold
redundant 0.01 micron 3 CPU throttled back to a

1 megaflop processing rate to
conserve energy, giving a total computer volume of 0.1 micron 3 . However, the
chromallocyte incorporates a tenfold redundant mass memory system that is ten
times larger (50 megabits, 0.01 micron 3 ) than for the microbivore (5 megabits,
0.001 micron 3 ), giving a total data storage volume of 0.1 micron 3 . This increased
memory allocation is justified by (1) the increased complexity of a CRT mission as
compared to an antimicrobial mission, and (2) the need for greater reliability,
safety, and certainty of result in the case of CRT, where a mission failure could
have more serious medical consequences. There is sufficient unallocated volume in
the current chromallocyte design to permit significantly increased onboard data
storage if required.
The overall CRT mission requires completing a five-phase procedure.
One of

B

these phases, called ''chromosome replacement,'' involves at least