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A nanobot is a nanotechnological robot nanomachine, also called a nanite, which is a mechanical or electromechanical device whose dimensions are measured in nanometres (millionths of a millimeter, or units of 10^-9 meter). Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Most generally, nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or below the size of 1-10 micrometer. ... A mite next to a gear set produced using MEMS, the precursor to nanotechnology. ... A humanoid robot playing the trumpet In practical usage, a robot is an autonomous or semi-autonomous device which performs its tasks either according to direct human control, partial control with human supervision, or completely autonomously. ... metre or meter, see meter (disambiguation) The metre is the basic unit of length in the International System of Units. ...

Nanomachines are largely in the research-and-development phase, but some primitive devices have been well tested. An example is a sensor having a switch approximately 1.5 nanometers across, capable of counting specific molecules in a chemical sample. The first useful applications of nanomachines will likely be in medical technology, where they could be used to identify pathogens and toxins from samples of body fluid and destroy them. Another potential application is the detection of toxic chemicals, and the measurement of their concentrations, in the environment.

Development of such machines is characterized under the field of nanorobotics. Most generally, nanorobotics is the technology of creating machines or robots at or below the size of 1-10 micrometer. ...

Since nanorobots would be microscopic in size, it may be necessary for very large numbers of them to work together to perform macroscopic tasks. These nanorobot swarms, both those which are incapable of replication (as in utility fog) and those which are capable of unconstrained replication in the natural environment (as in grey goo and its less common variants) are found in many science fiction stories, such as the nanoprobes in Star Trek and nanobots in Andromeda. The word "nanobot" (also "nanite", "nanot", "nanogene", "sub-atomic robot", or "microbot") is often used to indicate this fictional context and is an informal or even pejorative term to refer to the engineering concept of nanorobots. The word nanorobot is the correct technical term in the nonfictional context of serious engineering studies [1]. Utility fog is a collection of tiny robots, envisioned by Dr. John Storrs Hall while he was thinking about a nanotechnological replacement for car seatbelts. ... Grey goo, or gray goo, is a term first used by molecular nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler in his book Engines of Creation. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... // Real life nanoprobes The nanoprobe has been developed by tapering an optical fiber at a tip measuring a minuscule 100 nm. ... Star Trek collectively refers to six science fiction television series spanning 726 episodes, ten motion pictures, and hundreds of novels, video games, and other works of fiction, all set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the early- to mid-1960s. ... The featured ship of the Andromeda television show, the Andromeda Ascendant Gene Roddenberrys Andromeda is a science fiction television series, a posthumous creation of Gene Roddenberry. ...

The current view is that nanorobots capable of replication outside of a restricted factory environment do not form a necessary part of a productive nanotechnology, that the process of self-replication can be made inherently safe, and free-foraging replicators are in fact absent from current plans for developing and using molecular manufacturing. Molecular engineering is any means of manufacturing molecules. ...

Medical nanotechnology is often expected to utilize nanorobots injected into the patient to perform their treatment on a cellular level. Such nanorobots intended for use in medicine also might not replicate [2], as this would needlessly increase device complexity, reduce reliability, and interfere with the medical mission. Instead, medical nanorobots may be manufactured in carefully controlled nanofactories in which nanoscale machines are solidly integrated into a desktop-scale machine that builds macroscopic products. Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology and related research. ... A nanofactory is a proposed system in which nanomachines (resembling molecular assemblers, or industrial robot arms) would combine reactive molecules via mechanosynthesis to build larger atomically precise parts. ...

Nanorobots, or nanogenes as they were called by the Chulas, played an important part in the Doctor Who episodes The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances transforming humans into aliens. Main article: History of Doctor Who Doctor Who first appeared on BBC television on November 23, 1963. ... The Empty Child is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on May 21, 2005. ... The Doctor Dances is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on May 28, 2005. ...