Biomechanical Digital Human Models: Chances and Challenges to Expand Ergonomic Evaluation

Abstract

Nowadays, ergonomic evaluation of work can be done using Digital Human Models (DHM). One advantage is to reduce the need for corrective measures by supporting a more prospective ergonomic work design. Although ergonomic models provide useful information for risk assessment, single working tasks with minor changes in work place design are difficult to evaluate. Instead, biomechanical models can analyze single movements or body postures, taking internal forces in muscles and joints into account. Therefore, the main goal of this work is to establish an interface between a biomechanical human model (AnyBody) and the “Editor for manual work activities” (ema) to enrich ergonomic evaluation with biomechanical parameters. First results demonstrate that the automatically generated movements of ema showed some specific deviations relative to the subjects’ movements in experimental conditions. Optimization of kinematic data in AnyBody is necessary to ensure more physiological movements which are highly valuable for ergonomic evaluation.