NANOROBOTICS CONTROL FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Abstract

In this chapter, the biomedical nanorobot application was studied. The problem of using swarm nanorobots to deliver drugs to the tumor area was considered. A cooperative control strategy for pH sensitive nanorobots to deliver drugs in the tumor environment was proposed. Nanorobot architecture was first presented, including chemical sensors, actuators, power supply, and data transmission, which offer possible choices for manufacturing approaches, and major control interface requirements for designing medical nanorobots. Tumor pH measurement and microenvironment modeling are then reviewed. Based on a mathematical model of the ion diffusion process, control strategies were designed for nanorobots based on the control movement algorithm presented in Chapter 4 to trace the gradient of the measured pH values, and reach the tumor cells with the lowest pH value. Accordingly, cooperative control is performed by utilizing the MPSO algorithm and the MOA algorithm was also implemented to avoid collision with the blood elements in the nanorobots’ movements. The capability of the control strategy is illustrated through simulating a scenario of drug delivery by a group of nanorobots. Although the methodology introduced by this chapter is in the stage of conceptual design without materialized implementation, it is the intention to apply new robotics’ technologies to biomedical problems in order to create a solution that can be incrementally improved as the technology becomes available.