Engineers from Arizona State University (USA) have redesigned a robot used by manufacturers of clothing and sports equipment. Now his name is ANDI and he can simulate the thermal functions of the human body.
The world's first "dummy" that generates heat, shivers, walks and breathes can help scientists understand the body's resilience in extreme heat and stuffy rooms.
The robot reproduces thermal functions thanks to synthetic pores, as well as artificial perspiration and heat flow sensors. They are located on 35 different parts of its surface.
Thanks to the internal cooling channel, ANDI became the first thermal android suitable for outdoor tests. And this means that now scientists can test it in a real environment, which they plan to do in the near future in the Arizona desert (USA).
You can't put people in extremely hot situations and check what happens. But people often die from the heat, and we still don't fully understand what happens to the body at such moments. ANDI can help us figure this out.
Now ANDI is being tested in a special warm room, where it is exposed to strong wind, solar radiation and temperatures up to 60 degrees Celsius. During the tests, he is given various parameters so that he reacts like different people depending on weight, age, chronic diseases and other factors.
Experiments with a breathing and sweating robot in the open air should begin this summer. In addition to the desert, it will be tested in an urban environment with extreme heat and in old houses with broken air conditioning.
