Nanobot Voyager Set To Sail

A Chiang Mai University team has developed a motor so small it will power a microscopic robot on an expedition through human blood vessels. Boffins at the university's science faculty describe their invention as a "nanomotor". It will drive a medical robot about the size of a blood cell on a tour of the maze of human veins and capillaries. A "nanobot" - or nanotechnology robot - developed at Kent State University in Ohio, United States will be powered by a motor made of an extremely fine and pure ceramic created at Chiang Mai University. In addition to powering the nanobot, the piezoceramic - also known as "smart ceramics" - motor will navigate the machine on its exploration for such things as tiny tumours in internal organs. It is remote controlled by either low-voltage electric current or microwaves, explains head researcher Assoc Prof Supon Ananta. Stimulated by electric current or microwaves, piezoceramics can be enlarged or shrunk by nano levels, propelling the nanobot forward, back, left or right - just like a submarine.