This week Ford unveiled the Robutt, which is something we’ve been laughing about since the assignment came across our desk. Essentially, the RoButt is a fake… butt, that’s meant to simulate a person hopping into a car after a sweaty run, gym session, or however else your butt gets sweaty. We’re really trying to be mature here, we promise.
The purpose of the Robutt then, is to ensure that the Ford Motor Company seats are up to the task. When it comes to car seats, this really does matter. All kidding aside, the steering wheel, shifter, pedals, and seats take a lot of abuse in cars. This Robutt manages some R&D for Ford when it comes to how much a seat can take. Ford is marketing a lot of their current vehicles toward those who live an active lifestyle–the Focus Active, for example, so they want to be sure that the seats will hold up over time.
The US market isn’t expected to receive the Ford Focus Active, but we’re sure there’s a Robutt in a Ford engineering facility somewhere testing the seats for the 2020 Ford Explorer, we assume.
The Robutt is basically a soft pad attached to one of Ford’s Kuka robots. Watch as roughly half a gallon of water stands in for human sweat, and the Robutt “sits, bounces and twists” 7,500 times to simulate 10 years’ worth of sweaty drives. The testing takes place over three days and we can only take Ford Europe’s word for how well it works.
Ford Europe created the Robutt, and it’ll be used to test seats for Ford vehicles being sold in Europe.Just watch for yourself, and then try and hold back your own jokes.
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