Say hello to ANDI, the world’s first ‘breathing, sweating and shivering’ robot.
The test robot has been created by researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) to better help scientists understand how the human body reacts to heatwaves.
READ MORE! These crash test dummies cost the same as a Bugatti Veyron
The robot is a clever bit of kit that not only generates heat and shivers, but also walks and breathes like a human.
In fact, ANDI is able to mimic a whole range of human bodily functions.
The high-tech gadget has 35 different surface areas across its manikin body that are all individually controlled with temperature sensors and heat flux sensors.
It even has pores that produce sweat.
Urgh.
“You can’t put humans in dangerous extreme heat situations and test what would happen,” atmospheric scientist Jenni Vanos said.
“But there are situations we know of in the Valley where people are dying of heat, and we still don’t fully understand what happened.
“ANDI can help us figure that out.”
ANDI is the first thermal manikin in existence that can now be used outdoors thanks to its unique thermal cooling channel.
This will help researchers better understand why heat stress on the human body takes places and specifically, what can make extremely hot weather fatal in some cases.
The interesting thing is, there are actually 10 ANDI manikins around the world, although many of them are owned by athletic clothing companies for garment testing.
ASU’s ANDI is just one of two models currently being used by research institutions.
This summer, ANDI is being paired up with ASU’s biometerological heat robot MaRTy, to work together to gain a higher understanding into himan sweating mechanisms.
“MaRTy can tell us how the built environment modifies the amount of hear that jits the body, but MaRTy doesn’t know what happens inside the body,” said assistant professor Ariane Middel.
“MaRTy measures the environment, and then ANDI can then tell us how the body can react.”
It’s all very interesting – we can’t wait to see how ANDI and MaRTy get on.
