If you needed to test out some protective suits and Army equipment how would you do it?
You would build a blooming expensive robot mannequin, wouldn’t you? Go on, you know you would really.
The good news is that the Ministry of Defence think in the same way. They have just revealed a robot which cost £1 million. For that sort of money you would expect your army robot mannequin to run, sit down and do a pretty good impression of a soldier’s movements. Hey, you’re in luck again. This little fellow can lift his arms, kneel, run and march.
He’s Got a Name, You Know
The robot (he’s actually called an animatronic mannequin) is called Porton Man and he has over 100 sensors on his data which allow data to be recorded while tests are being carried out. The scientists who have developed Porton Man say that the robot will help them create the protective equipment while soldiers will need in the future.
This type of robot is the first of its kind in the UK and it has been designed and created on behalf of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. This is the agency where new clothes and equipment for soldiers are tested to make sure that they give adequate protection again chemical warfare agents.
The idea now is to get more realistic testing carried out using Porton Man, to allow a lighter type of protective clothing to be produced. Although it sounds simple, the robot mannequin has been described as a “complex piece of machinery”. The firm behind the design is i-bodi from Buckingham.
