Nanofactories based on a fleet of scientific instruments configured as miniature autonomous robots

If the hope for nanotechnology holds true, then we may witness the emergence of new types of high-throughput factories specially conceived to operate at the nanoscale and referred to as nanofactories. It is a very difficult task to predict the exact shape and the various components of such nanofactories. This paper describes a platform that we believe may be the foundation of many future nanofactories. The platform is based on a fleet of scientific instruments configured as miniature autonomous robots, each capable of fast operations at the molecular scale. The proposed approach is briefly compared to other methods and a general description of the final version of such a platform is also provided.