Event

Welcome to the half-time seminar of Estela Pérez Luque, PhD student at School of Engineering Science at Skövde University!

Estela has been working in the SAFER associated project  ADOPTIVE.

Title: Human Motion Predictions for Automotive Ergonomics Design

Zoom Link: https://his-se.zoom.us/my/danhogberg

Jolyon Carroll, PhD, Research Area Director, Human Body Protection, at SAFER, and Biomechanics Specialist at Autoliv Development is the external reviewer and her main supervisors at University of Skövde have been Prof, Dan Högberg, Erik Brolin and Maurice Lamb.

Abstract:

Studying how a product will affect the potential end-user is essential in product development (PD). In the PD process, such human-product interaction studies are typically addressed by ergonomics designer groups. Ergonomics designers use various tools to assess human well-being during the PD process, including physical prototypes, user tests and interviews, and human-product interaction simulations using digital human modelling (DHM) tools. DHM tools support ergonomics designers’ work allowing for the assessment of product design relative to user requirements at early stages of the PD process when the product exists only as a virtual model.

DHM tools have been widely used in the automotive industry for occupant packaging and interior design. However, these tools still present some limitations. One limitation is the ability of DHM tools to predict postures and motions with the desired accuracy. This limitation can significantly impact interior vehicle design, where current DHM tools typically require many manual adjustments from DHM tool users to get sufficiently accurate driving and passenger simulations. Manual adjustment processes can be time-consuming, tedious, and subjective, easily causing non-repeatable simulation results. Further, human motion predictions cannot be evaluated adequately due to the lack of driver and passenger ergonomics assessment methods that define what is acceptable for human-product interactions. Another issue is the usability of DHM tools themselves. Existing DHM tools may present complexities, lack reliability, or require a significant time investment. Because of these limitations, ergonomics designers must often run real-world validations of findings from DHM simulations, increasing the cost and time required for the vehicle development process. Thus, there is a need to develop new or improved methods for human posture and motion predictions, and enhance DHM tool usability for analysing ergonomics in the PD process.

This research aims to advance DHM tools through the development of methods and models that increase the usability and accuracy of human motion simulations to support decision-making when addressing ergonomics in PD processes in the automotive industry. The expected scientific and industrial contributions of this research consist of developing methods and models that support human-vehicle interactions in virtual vehicle occupant packaging and interior design.