Mobile nanoscale robotic device

There are a lot of types of mobile nanoscale robotic devices known by now. They ore often overlooked though since they are hidden behind the many terms used in SciFi that all vaguely refer to mutating omnivorous molecular assemblers. Non mutating and non omnivorous molecular assembler where an early concept that is now an outdated concept!. For the goal of advanced productive nanosystems nanofactories are targeted now.

Types

• medical naorobotic devices (e.g. Robert Freita's "Respirocyte")
• J. Storrs Hall's "Utility foglets"
• elasticity emulating microcomponents (specialised weaker form of utility foglets)
• microcomponent maintenance devices.
  Devices for low throughput maintenance purposes in products. While the products are actively running they could e.g. exchange radiation damaged parts and keep the products (e.g. motor material inside infrastructure) functional for arbitrary long spans of time. In contrast to molecular assemblers they would be incapable of self replication or mechanosynthesis.

A note on molecular assemblers

Molecular assemblers are by now considered:

• impractical (inefficient and harder to reach than nanofactories)
• undesirable (because of real forms of grey goo - less crazy than the SciFi depictions but still bad)
• but not fundamentally impossible (given sufficient effort advanced nanofactories should be programmable to build them)

For more details please go to the dedicated page.

About often taken assumptions

What advanced (non malicious) nanorobotic devices do not do and are not:

• NO self replication: this capability is for all practical purposes unnecessary and difficult (but achievable)
• NO mutations: they do mutate as much as the software on PC's does - not at all - emulation on a higher level is certainly possible - it is done today and is called evolutionary optimization. => Nanoscale robotic devices can not adapt other to new environments. (They can not adapt to changes in space or time. Redesign at the macro-scale is necessary.
• NO "omnivores": they can not digest process a very wide variety of food resources. See: atomically precise disassembly.