‘Manny’ Ready to Suit Up for Chemical Testing : Robotics: He walks, he talks, he sweats. And the Army hopes the lifelike mechanical man can help answer questions about protective clothing.

Someday, when Army scientists ask “Manny” what’s going on under that bulky gear providing protection from chemicals, they’ll only have to ask.

“My right leg is getting warm,” the mechanical man may reply.

The clipped, electronic voice is robotlike. But not the startlingly lifelike movements of the $3.4-million humanoid.

After years of preparation, Manny--a 5-foot-11, 165-pound robotic mannequin--is nearing initial tests at this remote Army installation in Utah’s western desert.

Researchers wanted to start using Manny three years ago to test military protective garments but met delays over related chemical defense projects.

Then came the Persian Gulf War, and the specter of chemical attack loomed larger. By late last year, renewed funding and more staff put Manny back on track, officials said.

The robot’s operators recently received a burnished stainless steel testing chamber. Meantime, civilian computer expert Jimmy Barnes added a few new tricks to a mechanical repertoire that lets Manny breathe, sweat, walk, talk and keep a uniform skin temperature of 98.6 degrees.

Instead of a flashing trouble light, for example, Manny’s voice can be programmed to announce problems.

Scientists are also contemplating recasting the plastic sheathing that gives the machine human form.

Atop the plastic is a double layer of dense black rubber fitted with sensors to detect any penetration of as little as one-billionth of an ounce of chemical or nerve gas.

This means Manny is practically ready for work, said project manager Capt. Mark Subsinsky.

Manny was conceived in 1985 by Dr. Lothar Salomon, a chemist and Dugway’s then-scientific director. Salomon, now retired, was looking for something more realistic than ordinary mannequins and stand-in poisons to test garments for warfare. The mannequins and substitute chemicals were used because there was no way to perform sufficient tests in a sealed environment.

Ideal testing mimics human movement, like walking, squatting, sitting, crawling and manipulating tools. Manny not only moves, it can move hour after hour so analysts see how the protective clothing wears in repeated use.

That couldn’t be done in the presence of lethal chemicals until the test chamber was completed by Manny’s maker, Battelle’s Pacific Northwest Laboratories in Richland, Wash.

The hermetically sealed cube is fitted with windows. Inside, Manny is supported at the small of the back by a steel arm attached to a control unit housing hydraulics and electrical systems.

The chamber is stored in a sealed building that keeps chemicals from leaking into the atmosphere.

On a recent visit, workers were knocking out a cinder-block wall to install windows in a room for Manny’s computer and instrument panel. Upstairs, more windows will let observers watch Manny at work.

Besides the Army’s uses. Manny could potentially be hired out without leaving the premises for testing protective gear for the Environmental Protection Agency as well as civilian hazardous materials handlers and fire departments. A ski manufacturer has even inquired about running flex tests on its skis.

“From concept to actuality,” said Capt. Tim Moore, who works in Dugway’s chemical laboratory, “Manny’s potential hasn’t been touched.”

But the Army’s current and primary concern, officials said, is using Manny to secure the safety of soldiers who, despite treaties banning chemical warfare, could face lethal agents on the battlefield.

“Ultimately,” Moore said, “it’s good for the troops.”

This year Manny will continue to undergo tests. It will be year’s end, if then, that actual chemical tests begin.