2023-07-22 22:07:07
What happens in the human body when exposed to a sunstroke? How can we protect ourselves on a warming planet? To answer these burning questions, researchers in the southwestern United States are working with a robot capable of breathing, shivering, and sweating.
Despite the high temperature, which reached 47 degrees Celsius on Friday in Phoenix, “Andy” was able to stay for hours under the scorching sun. It’s unparalleled endurance that excites the scientists responsible for testing this unique robot on the Arizona State University campus.
“It’s the first thermocouple in the world that we can routinely take outside in order to measure the amount of heat it receives from the environment,” said mechanical engineering professor Konrad Rekaczewski.
He added that this technique is “a very realistic way to measure human response to extreme weather conditions.”
At first glance, one thinks Andy is just a crash test dummy. But under its epoxy carbon-fiber skin, a network of connected sensors gauges body heat.
Andy also contains an internal cooling system and pores that allow him to breathe and sweat, all of which are divided into 35 independent thermal zones so that he can distribute his sweat. Like humans, the robot sweats more from behind. So far, there are only regarding 10 examples of this type and none of them can venture abroad. It has mainly been used by sporting equipment manufacturers to test their specialized clothing in thermal chambers.
This robot would help better understand hyperthermia, the 21st century disease that threatens a growing part of the world’s population due to a warming climate.
For obvious ethical reasons, “nobody studies the rise in body temperature while someone has heatstroke,” says Rykaczewski. But with Andy, that became possible, in real circumstances.
Accompanied by Marty, a mobile weather station that measures reflective heat from surrounding buildings, the robot takes its first steps outside in the midst of a historic heatwave in Phoenix. The Arizona capital is currently experiencing its longest heatwave ever: on Friday, temperatures exceeded 43 degrees Celsius for the 22nd day in a row. This desert city in the American Southwest is an ideal laboratory for preparing for tomorrow’s climate.
“If the Paris of the future looks like the Phoenix of today, we can learn a lot regarding the way buildings are designed,” Rykaczewski said. How do we adjust it? How do we change what we wear? How do we adjust our behaviors and adapt them to temperatures so high?
• Experts are studying a new way to design buildings, and how we adjust our behaviors and adapt them to temperatures so high.
• Scientists are testing the robot in a variety of situations, including: how can it handle hot winds or humid heat and with what kind of clothing?
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