Engineering on the Edge

Sensible Limits and Beyond
Nanotechnology

            Nanotechnology is the ultimate in manufacturing technology.  It combines various criteria which make it very attractive today.  One of these reasons is precision – this is accomplished with atom-by-atom placement.  The gain in such precise building is the ability to manufacture complex structures and demonstrate that it is not only possible but economical.

            Ralph C. Merkle, then a research scientist at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in California, former Principle Fellow at Zyvex and who also received Foresight Institute’s 1998 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology for Theoretical Work, is quoted as illustrating nanotechnology by a description of trees.  “Trees grow by taking energy from sunlight and nutrients from the soil to build themselves.  They do it quietly and discretely, without digging holes in the ground or burning fossil fuels or throwing off noxious waste products.  They use only what they need, arranging the atoms in complex internal patterns.  And trees also self-replicate: They produce seeds that build other trees.  Precisely because it’s a miracle of biology, lumber costs only a few dollars a pound.”  (Fouke, Janie, Editor, Trudy E.  Bell and Dave Dooling, Writers. Engineering Tomorrow: Today’s Technology Experts Envision the Next Century.  IEEE Press Marketing.  2000)

Robotics

            With the growth of technology, the use of robots continues to grow along  with it.  In the future, robots will have optical character recognition verification whereby a robot could read lines of print or recognize colors. Some types of robots are master-slave styles.  They incorporate the use of a human wearing sensors.  The motions are linked to a computer and the robot mimics the movement in speed and smoothness.

            Current work on industrial robots is devoted to increasing their sensitivity to the work environment.  Computer-linked television cameras serve as eyes and pressure-sensitive "skins" are being developed for manipulator grippers.  Many other kinds of sensors can also be placed on robots.  Paramount for robots is to have them capable of intelligent travel with a preprogrammed search (Robot - Research. Compton''s Interactive Encyclopedia^© 2000.  [CD-ROM]. The Learning Company and its affiliates and licensors).  This advancement will be dependent upon other fields in development such as advanced software, machine vision, speech recognition, and efficient miniature motors developed with the help of micromachining and nanotechnology.  The fantasy of science fiction will come about with the eventual development of autonomous and service type robots.