ABSTRACT

The diagnosis and treatment of a disease might be signicantly enhanced if nanorobotic devices, such as sensors and actuators, could be utilized within the human body [1-53]. Sensors for use in the human patient would have to be minimally invasive and biocompatible for temporary use. Nanorobots, as a general category of novel diminutive devices, are proposed in this chapter for use as sensors and actuators in vivo. Since this is a newly emerging area of research, we must rst dene what nanorobot devices are. Nanorobotic devices are tiny machines, micron size, that are enabled by nanotechnology for applications in medicine. They are important because they may have greater precision, force, and be easier to control than biological materials. The history of nanorobots or “tiny machine” had its inception in 1959, when Richard Feynman stated that “Development of tiny machines cannot be avoided” [11]. Understandably, some people are skeptical and put forward that nanorobots cannot ever be built or work within the human body. Contrarily, we propose that tiny machines will indeed become the new frontier in medicine and that practically every facet of medicine will benet from the application of nanorobotic devices.