Features: Jan. 14, 2002

Small Robots, Big Payoff
In a new manufacturing method, nanoscale robots could be used in assembly-line-like fashion to create minuscule machines that could repair cells inside the human body.

Researchers in Rensselaer's Center for Automation Technology (CAT) are using the Clean Room to build these robots. They are working with Zyvex Corporation, a Texas company that recently won a $12.2 million award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Advanced Technology Program. The CAT will receive about $2 million over five years.

Special software programs allow the robots to work in a colony so that if one robot fails, another can take over. But even more challenging is getting these robots to snap together microscopic pieces to create a useful product, said Harry Stephanou, director of the CAT. If that can be accomplished, then this technology could be more accurate and affordable than current manufacturing methods.

According to Stephanou, no one can really know what products will come out of this research, although Rensselaer experts have already come up with ways for machines to assemble fiber-optic cable, a task currently done by humans.

This award will also be used by Zyvex's joint-venture partner, Standard MEMS Inc. of Massachusetts, and two Texas state schools. Zyvex and Standard MEMS will put an additional $12.3 million into the project.