St.

Anns College Of Engineering & Technology

A SEMINAR REPORT ON

NANOROBOTS
By:

POTHANA RAGHURAM KUMAR

06F01A0536 B.Tech (CSE)

Submitted for: PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF B.TECH. (CSE) 2006-2010

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ABSTRACT
In todays fast world, man is in a situation where he has to compete against machines. Due to this stress of a mechanical life, the human body is subjected to various levels of trauma. The organ most affected is the heart. Heart attacks are becoming so common now a day. The percentage of people affected is increasing by the day. This heart attack is mainly caused due to improper diet with excessive cholesterols and lack of proper exercise to burn calories, which leads to blocks in the arteries. The present method of treatment- the bypass surgery or the angioplasty, though effective, may be considered outdated in todays technological age. Nanorobots are tiny nanoscale devices that may be used to perform a variety of tasks very accurately and in lesser time. Nanotechnology is the cutting edge of future technology and is vastly directed towards medical applications. This paper throws light on one possible application of these nanorobots in the human body, where they may be employed to remove heart blocks more effectively and accurately, in lesser time causing no pain what so ever. This nanotechnology will be the driver for the future technologies of todays shrinking world.

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INTRODUCTION
Heart blocks are becoming one of the major diseases among the people of todays world. With a variety of reasons for occurrence, ranging from lack of exercise to smoking and drinking, this has emerged as the most wide spread disease ever. These heart blocks are caused due to a variety of reasons. Current diagnostic measures include a lot of painful processes like the Angiogram. The treatment for the block is also extremely dangerous, time consuming and painful. Angioplasty, though having a high success rate, is still old fashioned. Todays technology promises a lot more than the insertion of a thin tube into your blood vessels. Nanorobots can be effectively used in this process of curing heart blocks. This paper discusses the causes of heart blocks, the current process of diagnosis and therapy. Later this paper throws light on the novel idea of curing these heart blocks using nanorobots- a technology just a few years away from implementation. This paper views the problem on a purely theoretical and imaginative approach.

CHOLESTEROLS
Our body fluids, mainly blood have a biochemical compound known as cholesterol. These cholesterols are chemical compounds of glycerol and unsaturated acid. The cholesterols found in the human body can be classified into two types. They are, . Low density lipids (LDL) . High density lipids (HDL)

St. Anns College Of Engineering & Technology These cholesterols flow through the blood and are essential for the normal functioning of the body to a certain extent. Cholesterol is a fat-like substance (lipid). It is both produced in the liver and consumed by eating animal products such as meat, eggs or dairy products. The body needs cholesterol, and manufactures all the cholesterol needed by various organ systems. In fact, the body naturally produces up to four times more cholesterol than what normally would be taken in through diet. The body uses cholesterol to: . Assist in the manufacture of hormones or vitamin D . Break down carbohydrates and proteins . Help form a protective coating around nerves . Build cell walls and to produce bile(the word cholesterol is Greek for bile solids). Cholesterol is carried through the bloodstream by lipoproteins. Lipoproteins are proteins that wrap around both cholesterol and other fatty materials and transport them through the bloodstream. The HDLs are basically harmless as they highly stable and are disposed off by the body effectively. These HDLs are basically stable and hence do not stick to the walls of the blood vessels. Actually , these HDLs help to carry the bad cholesterols from the blood stream to the liver from where it gets disposed. These contain more of protein , and less fat. On the other hand, the LDLs contain more fat and less protein. The LDLs are a bit difficult to get rid of. These LDLs or bad cholesterols as they are commonly known, get accumulated on the walls of the blood vessels. This happens because these LDLs are highly unstable. So they get disintegrated and rather than being disposed off by the liver, they get accumulated along the walls of the arteries. It is natural that the blood vessels continually contract and expand in order to accommodate the variations in the blood pressure, arising due to various reasons. But when the LDLs flow through the blood, they get accumulated on the walls of the blood vessels. These LDLs on accumulation make the blood vessels loose their elastic property. As a result the blood vessels will no longer be able to keep up with the pressure variations of the blood.

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Hence the pressure fluctuations in the blood are carried over to the heart and hence the heart is subjected to constantly varying stress which weakens it.

ANGIOGRAM
The LDLs on further deposition form a lump and close in on the diameter of the blood vessel. So as the concentration increases the diameter of the blood vessel decreases. Hence blood transportation to or from the heart is hindered. The intensity of this problem is measured by a method known as Angiogram.. Here a small tube of diameter of about a few micrometers with a catheter at the end is used. This is introduced into the veins at the thigh and up to the pericardium. This catheter injects a radioactive fluid into the blood stream, the flow of which is monitored by a continuous X-ray. When this fluid flows through the block, there will be a contraction in the thickness of the fluid line monitored through the Xray. This contraction indicates the location of the block. Once the block has been located, it is removed by a method known as Angioplasty.

ANGIOPLASTY
In this method the end of the catheter has a deflated balloon. This balloon is positioned under the block and it is inflated, so that the block bursts, and is carried away through the blood stream. In order to prevent the recursion of the block, the blocked area iscoveredwithaone-wayinflatablemetalcylinder,

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that is attached on the outside of the balloon. As the balloon is inflated, the cylinder attains shape, and gets locked on attaining maximum expansibility. This method is known as balloon angioplasty.

NANOROBOTS
Nanorobots are nanodevices that may be of about 3 to 5 micrometers in size. The individual parts used to make these nanorobots may be of 1 to 100 nm in size. These nanorobots are mainly made up of carbon, and may be given a coating of diamond. The diamond coat is given because diamond is the most inert and tough material ever known. These nanorobots can be used for a variety of purposes.

In this paper, to treat heart blocks we use three kinds of nanorobots. Nanorobots with nanosensors to locate the block. These robots will need four kinds of nanosensors. 1. Pressure sensors 2. Acoustic sensors

St. Anns College Of Engineering & Technology 3. Chemo sensors 4. Smart sensors Nanorobots equipped with nanolasers to severe the block after confirmation.

Nanorobots that have the ability to fill the burnt gaps with fresh flawless cells synthesized by the robots themselves in order to prevent the recurrence of the block. This process is known as molecular synthesis.

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THE ACTUAL PROCESS

The three types of nanorobots needed for the process, are suspended in a liquid matrix and injected into blood vessels of the patient. Immediately the acoustic sensors in the sensor robots get activated and begin navigating the army of robots through the blood stream to the pericardium. Simultaneously, the smart sensors present in the sensor robots, get activated and form a closed ad-hoc network connecting all the robots. This is very essential in order to guide all the nanorobots to the desired location.

The sensor robots perform the most sophisticated type of diagnosis known, i.e. diagnosis from the inside of the human body. These sensors , on reaching the periphery of the heart, scan the pericardial vessels, for blocks and locate the spot exactly. The pressure sensors mounted on the sensor robots, scan the blood vessels for variations in the blood pressure. This will act as the first confirmation. This scanning for

St. Anns College Of Engineering & Technology pressure variations is necessary, as in the region of the block, there will be a constriction of the blood vessel and hence a rise in the blood pressure compared to that existing in the Size of nanorobots when compared to that of the red blood cells nearby areas. These sensors will generate a report of the potential areas of heart block, based on the pressure mapping of the blood vessels.

The second confirmation comes from the chemo sensors. These sensors scan the region they traverse, for the chemical composition of the cholesterols. That is, these sensors differentiate the cholesterol compounds accumulated on the walls of the blood vessels, from the actual composition of the tissues of the blood vessels. In this way, the block can be identified accurately. All these information are transmitted through the ad- hoc network formed by all the smart sensors and can be constantly viewed by the doctors monitoring the entire process. After successful location of the block, the second type of nanorobots, those equipped with nanolasers, come into picture. These lasers, like the robots themselves, can be powered by the body itself, by means of the kinetic energy of the flowing blood, pressure of the blood flow, etc. thus, these lasers can be powered by the most ingenious ways imaginable. These laser robots on activation based on the information flow through the network, effectively burn down the block. Since the operation is held on a nanoscale, the outcome is highly accurate. Moreover , there is literally zero damage to the surrounding healthy tissues. The final leg of the operation is the responsibility of the molecular synthesizers. These nanorobots, take the required biochemical substances from the blood or the surrounding tissues, and synthesis the cells of the blood vessels in order to seal the area of the block. These cells are placed in the affected region and as a result, we have a whole new region of the blood vessel that is completely free from the threat of another block. Sensor robots that navigate the other robots through the blood stream.

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ADVANTAGES
. The process is very fast. . Since the scale of opeartion is very small, the results are very accurate. . The process is less painful unlike angioplasty, where the patient takes months to recover from the physical trauma of the operation. . The process is technologically very advanced and reliable. . The patient is not subjected to harmful rays unlike angioplasty where he is placed below a continuous X-ray during diagnosis. . The chance of any aftereffects or recurrences are completely eliminated.

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DISADVANTAGES
. . Nanorobots, the technology as such, may be very costly. The technology may take several years to be implemented practically.

. The technology may lead to further technological problems like the introduction of artificial reconstruction and artificial intelligence which will result in the robots going out of control of humans.

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CONCLUSION
Nanotechnology is truly a vast field of research and study, bound only by the limits of human imagination. Even though this may seem to most of them like a fairy tale, the days of implementation of these devices are not far off. The machines needed to fabricate these nanorobots are yet to be visualized. Hence these nanorobots are still out of production although having passed the drawing board stage long back. The human mind will one day make this extremely interesting vision, a reality. This field however at present, in its infancy stages, just like aviation was, during the early 1900s. Let us hope that this technology also will one day, become as successful and dominating like aviation today.

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REFERENCES
. Electronics for you November 2004. . www.wikipedia.com\cholesterols . www.howstuffworks.com