Author: Martin Dinsmore

When you care enough to give the very best…

Our Newton thermal manikins never ask for much. A little electricity… a bit of clean water… some help when getting dressed. Our Newton’s seldom complain and rarely ask for anything beyond the basic necessities, so if you’ve been wondering what the perfect Christmas gift might be for the Newton in your life, we’d like to recommend our new ManikinPC2 (Manikin Physiology Control and Predictive Comfort) software.



Just imagine the joy you’ll see on Newton’s face when he learns that ManikinPC2 adds thermoregulation capabilities (something every thermal manikin needs) and creates a new closed-loop feedback control package that allows Newton to accurately mimic the human thermoregulatory system and provide metrics for comfort and sensation.



The ManikinPC2 control system also permits variable activity levels that simulate the human metabolism while sleeping, resting, working, or exercising. In fact, any level of activity can be input and appropriate metabolic wattages will be imposed onto the manikin.



Simply put, giving the new ManikinPC2 software will let any Newton thermal manikin respond in real-time with an appropriate thermal response to transient inputs. So this Christmas, give the gift of thermoregulation. Help Newton grow even closer to his dream of interacting with his environment in the same way a real human would. You can bet it will be his best Christmas ever.

8I3M Conference was a success!

The Eighth International Meeting for Manikins and Modeling (8I3M) was deemed a great success by all the conference attendees.



The August 22-26 event, in Victoria, BC, Canada, enjoyed the happy combination of outstanding weather, first-class facilities, highly relevant presentations, lively discussions, and great food. Plus, Victoria is an outstanding city for tourism, and there was no shortage of things to do with our free time.



In putting the 8I3M conference together, Measurement Technology NW received welcome support from the Sport Innovation (SPIN) Centre, the Pacific Institute of Sport Excellence (PISE), ThermoAnalytics, Inc, and W.L. Gore. Our thanks go out to all these organizations, and to the 60+ people who attended from around the world. MTNW engineers presented the following research papers:



If you were not able to attend, you missed out receiving the 8I3M conference proceedings on a one-of-a-kind “robot” USB drive. How appropriate for a manikin conference!

Thermetrics and Boston Dynamics team up to create the IPEMS robotic thermal manikin

As regular Measurement Technology NW followers may know, back in November 2008 MTNW and a group that included Midwest Research Institute, Boston Dynamics, Smith Carter CUH2A, and HHI Corporation were chosen by the US Army to design and build “IPEMS” (Individual Protection Ensemble Mannequin System).


This project includes state-of-the-art chemical testing facilities and a first-of-its-kind robotic thermal mannequin to perform high-resolution testing of protective clothing and equipment under live chemical exposure conditions.


The IPEMS mannequin will be a freestanding, self-balancing robot that will simulate human physiology for realistic tests of protective equipment in a controlled environment.  Measurement Technology NW’s role is to develop IPEMS’s skin surface segments and thermal control systems, while other partnering companies developed the robotic mannequin’s internal structure.


Integrating full-function thermal, perspiration, and chemical sensing controls into a 50th percentile body form, while also fitting it over an internal robotic structure capable of ranges of movement far beyond that of existing mannequin systems, presented some significant challenges. Adding more complexity to this challenge was the need for sealed skin surfaces and joints to prevent chemical agent contamination, while still allowing internal access for service and repairs. The IPEMS mannequin design that emerged from Phase 1 – the design phase – included a body surface segmented into 17 separate hard-shell regions (14 independent thermal zones), each with sweating capability and chemical sensing ports.


Overall, Phase 1 was a successful effort. Phase 2 – the fabrication phase – will include first-article build up of a mannequin shell region and joint sleeve. After decontamination testing and safety/operational procedures are finalized, work will begin on building the first IPEMS mannequin.

Click here to see our research paper on this.

Manikin or Mannequin?

Throughout Thermetrics’ website, visitors will see that Newton, Nemo, ADAM, STAN, and our other anthropometric systems are called “Thermal Manikins.”



Hmmm, you say, why aren’t they called “Thermal Mannequins”? They’re the same thing, right?



In many European countries (and a good part of the Americas) a retail store display or fashion dummy is called a mannequin. That word has been around a long time, and because it sounds the same in a number of major languages (English, French, German, etc.), when people hear the unfamiliar word ‘manikin’ spoken they automatically assume it is the word they know – mannequin.



But, even though “manikin” and “mannequin” are pronounced the same, the two words have different meanings.



In most dictionaries (see http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mannequin), “mannequin” is primarily used to describe a fashion dummy:



Mannequin (alt: Manikin) 1: A life-size model of a human being, used by tailors, artists, or to display clothing in the window of a shop. 2: A person who models clothing.



However, the word “manikin” has a much more specialized definition:



Manikin (alt: Mannequin) 1: An anatomical model of the human body, usually with movable parts, used for teaching medical or art students.



Therefore, when test instruments began to replace human subjects in thermal comfort research during the 1950’s and 60’s, the term “thermal manikin” was selected as the best definition for the instrumented models being developed. 



We still see both terms being used, and that’s OK with us. Whether it’s a Thermal Manikin, or Thermal Mannequin, we’re the right people to call.



Note: we occasionally get inquiries from people looking for a “thermal dummy”, perhaps due to name-confusion with the more familiar crash test dummy – an instrument that doesn’t have enough sense to stay out of car accidents. But because simulating the metabolic state of a human takes a good brain and a well-tuned control system, our manikins aren’t dummies!