In 1959, renowned physicist Richard Feynman talked about what was soon to be called nanotechnology. But it wasn't until 1986 that the ideas of atomic-sized structures and manipulation of things at that level surfaced again, this time in a book, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology, which proposed the idea of a nanoscale "assembler" which would be able to build a copy of itself and of other items of arbitrary complexity with atomic control. Since then, nanotechnology has been nothing more than a sci-fi fantasy, where they could do amazing things such as heal wounds, build massive structures in time frames impossible for humans, and cure diseases from the body. That has been the case until 2005, when Rice University was able to build a "nanocar" out of fullerene molecules built on a chassis of carbon compounds. The precision required to this was great, as this car was 20000 times thinner than a human hair.
However, the invention of actual working nanites would require a surge in either processing power or miniaturization, because to build a robot on a nano scale would require very tiny electronics to allow the robot to work. Not to mention weather-proofing the robot for missions inside the body and in adverse climates.
Only time will tell.
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