Robotics Technology Center

Nano-Robotic Arm Places Atoms and Molecules with 100% Accuracy and Precision

Manufactured products are basically made of atoms, and structures of these products depend on how the atoms are arranged. For example, if one rearranges atoms in coal, it will form into diamond.

This concept is called nanotechnology. It uses positioning and assembly of atoms in order to create molecular objects or devices which are measured less than 1,000 nanometers only.

However, as the technology grew more popular in recent years, several scientists took advantage of this concept to create a new branch in robotics, "molecular robotics.

A New York University professor of chemistry Dr. Nadrian Seeman, has done several works in nanoscale. One of his recent experiments, the two-armed nano-robot was featured in a 2009 article in Nature Nanotechnology.

Along with his collaborators in China at Nanjing University, Dr. Seeman built a two-armed nanorobotic device with the ability to place specific atoms and molecules where scientists want them. The robot was approximately 150 x 50 x 8 nanometers in size, in which over a million could fit in a single red blood cell.

Other nanoscale projects built by Dr. Seeman and his collaborators include a nanoscale walking biped, truncated DNA octahedrons, and sequence-dependent molecular switch arrays.

Click here to read more about Nano-robotic Arm and Nanotechnology.