COMPUTATIONAL TASKS IN MEDICAL NANOROBOTICS - Bio-Inspired and Nanoscale Integrated Computing - page 422

thus simplifying and perfecting medical recordkeeping while making lifesaving
data more quickly accessible to emergency medical personnel. Security protocols
must safeguard not just these internal data stores, but also access to the patient's
implanted internal communications network and any other in vivo nanorobotry
that might be present. Other security protocols enforcing digital rights manage-
ment (DRM), audit trails, process accounting, expiration dates and related
schemes may be employed on commercial systems to enforce patent rights.
However, any regulations requiring implementation of embedded government-
sponsored controls or content filtering should be regarded with deep suspicion.
15.4.6. Group Protocols
Group protocols may be required to control the collective behaviors of large
populations of simultaneously interacting in vivo medical nanorobots. It is hoped
that relatively simple individual nanorobot behaviors [77] can be programmed
that will give rise to more complex desired group behaviors. Multirobot
control algorithms are a major research field today with precedents in agoric
algorithms [78-81], stigmergy [82], swarm computing [83, 84], and agent-based
systems [80].
15.5. CONCLUSIONS
Medical nanorobots may be constructed of diamondoid nanometer-scale parts
and subsystems including onboard sensors, motors, manipulators, power plants,
and molecular computers. The presence of onboard nanocomputers will allow
in vivo medical nanorobots to perform numerous complex behaviors which must
be conditionally executed on at least a semiautonomous basis, guided by receipt of
local sensor data, constrained by preprogrammed settings, activity scripts, and
event clocking, and further limited by a variety of simultaneously executing real-
time control protocols.
Such nanorobots cannot yet be manufactured, but preliminary scaling studies
for several classes of medical nanorobots including respirocytes, microbivores,
clottocytes and chromallocytes have been published in the literature. These
designs allow an analysis of basic computational tasks and a summation of major
computational control functions common to all complex medical nanorobots.
These functions include the control and management of pumping, sensing,
configuration, energy, communication, navigation, manipulation, locomotion,
computation, and the use of redundancy management and flawless compact
software.
Nanorobot control protocols are required to ensure that each nanorobot
completes its intended mission accurately, completely, safely, and in a timely
manner according to plan. Six major classes of nanorobot control protocols have
been identified and include operational, biocompatibility, theater, safety, security,
and group protocols. Six important subclasses of theater protocols include