Arizona researchers have deployed a robot that can breathe, shiver and sweat in an attempt to understand what happens to the body when one gets a heat stroke. The robot may provide clues as to how humans protect themselves in a warming planet.
ANDI is "a very realistic way to experimentally measure how a person responds to extreme climate" without putting people at risk, mechanical engineering professor Konrad Rykaczewski told the AFP news agency.
The southwestern state's capital Phoenix is currently enduring its longest heat wave in history: on Friday, the mercury exceeded 43 degrees Celsius for the 22nd day in a row, a demonstration of what is likely to come in a world impacted by climate change.
For humans, such heat represents a potentially lethal threat, one that is still not fully understood. But ANDI, a one-of-a-kind humanoid robot at Arizona State University, has to venture out.
"He is the world's first outdoor thermal mannequin that we can routinely take outside and ... measure how much heat he is receiving from the environment," Rykaczewski says.
ANDI, which stands for Advanced Newton Dynamic Instrument, resembles a simple crash-test dummy but underneath its epoxy/carbon fiber skin is a treasure trove of technology, such as a network of connected sensors that assess heat diffused through the body.
ANDI also has an internal cooling system and pores allowing it to breathe and sweat. There are 35 independent thermal zones and, like humans, the robot, which cost more than half a million dollars to build, sweats more from its back.
Until now, about a dozen mannequins of this type existed, and none of them could venture outdoors.
They were mostly used by sports equipment manufacturers to test their technical clothing in thermal chambers.
Hyperthermia
Researchers hope the robot will provide a better understanding of hyperthermia which occurs when a body overheats. The condition now threatens a growing proportion of the world's population as a result of global warming.
For obvious ethical reasons, "nobody measures core temperature increase while somebody's getting heatstroke," says Rykaczewski. However, the effects of heat on the human body are still not fully comprehended and ANDI gives researchers a chance to understand.
Accompanied by MaRTy (Mean Radiant Temperature), a mobile weather station that measures the heat reflected by the buildings around it, the robot is taking its first steps outside in Phoenix.
"How do we change what we wear? How do we change our behavioural patterns and adjust them to temperatures that are of this order of magnitude?" Rykaczewski asks.
Jennifer Vanos, a climatologist involved in the project explains that ANDI is also infinitely reprogrammable. The research team can make "digital twins of the mannequin to look at different segments of the population," she says.
For example, the older you get, the less you sweat. Young people will need different protection from athletes or people in poor health. With ANDI, scientists can simulate the thermoregulatory mechanisms specific to each individual.
They can also test the robot in a variety of situations. For example, Phoenix is dry – what about humid heat? How does the human body cope in hot winds?
Their research will be useful for designing heat-resistant clothing, rethinking urban planning and protecting the most vulnerable.
In Phoenix, which opens dozens of cooling centres for the homeless every summer, their findings could guide the actions of social workers.
"How long should a person stay in a cooling centre to cool off, so that their core temperature goes down to a level that's safe again? We can answer that question with ANDI," Vanos says.
