ADAM is about to land a job after sitting patiently for two years at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden.
ADAM will sit inside test cars and sweat or shiver as scientists control the cabin temperature settings. He will take in dry air and expel humid air, just as humans do.
Only ADAM is a human-sized robot with 120 segments, each fitted with sensors simulating how humans respond to outside temperature. ADAM is part of a four-year, $8.4 million joint project between NREL and Ford Motor Co. that begins this summer. The goal is to reduce by a third the power consumed by motor vehicle air conditioners.
The federal government and Ford will split the cost.
“ADAM is fantastic; he is by far the most sophisticated ‘manikin’ in the world,” said Clay Maranville, a senior research scientist at Ford. “He is one of the major reasons, besides the scientists, why we think NREL is really a valuable contributor to this project.”
NREL took three years to build ADAM, short for Advanced Automotive Manikin, and debuted him in 2004.
The physiological model that controls ADAM is linked to another NREL computer model that predicts human comfort at various temperature settings.
His original purpose was to help in a project that aimed to reduce the power used by car engines and run things other than just the wheels. Those included powering the car stereo, heating the seats or running the air conditioner.
Known as the “Vehicle Ancillary Load Reduction” project, it lost federal funding two years ago and is on hold.
ADAM has been employed off and on ever since.
In 2006, when NASA wanted to test the performance of liquid- cooled garments astronauts wear beneath space suits — used to cool their bodies during space walks — they turned to ADAM.
Also, his services were needed when the government tested the thermal blankets used to protect injured soldiers from hypothermia.
Today, ADAM’s dusting off to work on the NREL-Ford Motor partnership.
The team includes scientists from Ohio State University and auto-parts supplier Visteon. It will research efficient ways of cooling vehicles based on thermoelectrics.
The advantage is that by placing smaller systems around the car cabin, specific occupants can be cooled rather than cool the entire cabin as conventional car air conditioners do. In that way, less energy would be used with fewer occupants.
“ADAM won’t probably be used in the project until next year,” said John Rugh, senior engineer at NREL. “He will just wait in the lab, not complaining too much.”
Gargi Chakrabarty: 303-954-2976 or gchakrabarty@denverpost.com
