Robotic nanoassembly: current developments and challenges

Robotic nanoassembly is an emerging field that deals with the controlled manipulation, handling and assembly of atoms, molecules and nano objects by robots for manufacturing of nano structures, devices and systems. Nanoassembly is expected to have revolutionary applications in almost all the scientific and technological areas. This paper presents a general review of nanoassembly by robots considering its current developments and challenges. It discusses scanning probe-based 2D nanomanipulation, gripper-based 3D nanohandling, object-oriented nanoassembly and hybrid nanoassembly techniques, which are the main topics of interest in the field. The challenging issues in robotic nanoassembly are outlined together with the topics.