Unveiling The World's First Molecular Robot

blessing97 (54)in #stemng • 7 years ago

It is "no new news" that robots which are complex machines capable of carrying out equally complex series of automatic tasks and actions are playing major roles today in our world in general and have been doing so for quite some time now but more especially in recent years.

Be it self driving cars, artificially intelligent machines, industrialized and commercialized robots etc. They are all gradually replacing manual handling of various tasks, and for good reason too. They are generally more effective and efficient than humans, and are also generally more reliable.

INBUILT FEATURES OF THE MOLECULAR ROBOT

Most of the robots we're generally familiar with and more accustomed to are those with relatively large dimensional proportions. Hence imagine how fascinating the whole "molecular robot" concept is! Scientists were able to defy the odds by creating a robot which is only a millionth of a millimeter in size, with the robot consisting of just 150 Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms.

To put the aforementioned size into perspective, a quintillion(or a billion billion) of the single robots stacked upon each other will only equate to the size of a single grain of salt, thus it can also be referred to as a nanobot. Pretty incredible if you ask me!

The robot which can be programmed and made to build other molecules with the aid of a very tiny molecular robotic arm was built by scientists at the University of Manchester. The robots were programmed by the scientists to operate and function on a molecular level by executing chemical reactions using special solutions in order to perform the necessary molecular tasks.

A professor by the name David Leigh who was the lead researcher of the project which he called "The ultimate in the miniaturization of machinery" had this to say about the scientific breakthrough;

All matter is made up of atoms and these are the basic building blocks that form molecules......Our robot is literally a molecular robot constructed of atoms just like you can build a very simple robot out of Lego bricks. The robot then responds to a series of simple commands that are programmed with chemical inputs by a scientist. It is similar to the way robots are used on a car assembly line. Those robots pick up a panel and position it so that it can be riveted in the correct way to build the bodywork of a car. So, just like the robot in the factory, our molecular version can be programmed to position and rivet components in different ways to build different products, just on a much smaller scale at a molecular level.
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How Exactly Would These Nano-robots revolutionalize The World Of Nanotechnology?

Well, no doubt the field of nanotechnology is no doubt gaining more and more ground and has found a wide range and variety of applications and usage. Be it in the field of science, technology, medicine, healthcare and otherwise. And the recent introduction of these nanorobots will definitely further revolutionalize the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology as a whole.

This is because you can consider each robot as a molecular worker, with each coming together to work in very tiny, miniscule molecular factories and while working with great efficiency too. And what is more? These workers have the unparalled ability to manufacture and produce new generation materials, products and substances with this cutting edge technology and with near zero waste.

So much has changed in the world of electronics today, especially with the price and cost of materials to produce or manufacture electronics skyrocketing with each and every passing day. But with the subsequent emergence and arrival of this new cutting edge technology, instead of the use of real-life sized apparatus, everything is done on a much smaller molecular scale with almost zero margin for error.

Thus a subsequent reduction in the price of the actual tech will lead to an equal if not relatively greater ability to produce more cost-effective and cost-efficient materials, thus improving the general quality of manufactured products.

Of course the technology is still very much in it's infant stage and much work still remains to be done, as was clearly highlighted and evident in Professor's Leigh's statement below;

This is just the start but we anticipate that within 10 to 20 years molecular robots will begin to be used to build molecules and materials on assembly lines in molecular factories.
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And also that of a University of Edinburgh chemistry professor by name Sir Fraser Stoddart who further said;

This doesn't happen overnight; it takes a very long time and hundreds of very talented postdocs." For the handling of fragile or sensitive materials, these robots are indispensable.
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The importance of nanotechnology thus cannot be overemphasized, and although it is still a relatively new form of technology, it still has the ultimate potential to completely change our lives in several ways and aspects. And the coming years sure do look very promising, you wouldn't want to miss out on this. Trust me!