Integrating human factors early in the design process using digital human modelling and surrogate modelling

BACKGROUND: In recent years, a growing interest in ergonomics and comfort perception in secondary schools and universities can be detected, to go beyond the UNI-EN regulations and understanding how practically improve students’ perceived comfort during lessons. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyse the (dis)comfort perceived by students while sitting in a combo-desk during lessons; it proposed a method for understanding and weighing the influence of postural factors on overall (dis)comfort. METHODS: Twenty healthy students performed a random combination of three different tasks in two sessions - listening, reading on a tablet and writing. Subjective perceptions were investigated through questionnaires, in which the expected and the overall comfort were evaluated; postural angles were gathered by processing photos through Kinovea® software and were used for the virtual-postural analysis, using a DHM (Digital Human Modelling) software; statistical analysis was used to investigate the influence of subjective comfort of each body part on the overall perceived comfort. RESULTS: The statistical correlations were used to perform an optimization problem in order to create a general law to formulate the overall comfort function, for each task, as a weighted sum of the comfort perceived in each body part. The test procedure, additionally, evaluated the influence on comfort over time. The results showed how the upper back and the task-related upper limb are the most influencing factors in the overall comfort perception. CONCLUSIONS: The paper revealed a precise and straightforward analysis method that can be easily repeated for other design applications. Obtained results can suggest to designers easy solution to re-design the combo-desk.

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Using Digital Human Modelling to Evaluate Field of View for Articulating Devices on Railway Engineering Vehicles

10.4271/2005-01-2677 ◽

2005 ◽

Author(s):

Brendan Ryan ◽

Jin Wang ◽

Christine M. Haslegrave

Keyword(s):

Field Of View ◽

Human Modelling ◽

Railway Engineering ◽

Digital Human

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Human Factors Engineering in the Control Room Design Process of an Engineer/Constructor

Proceedings of the Human Factors Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193128402800411 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 341-343

Author(s):

Philip E. Knobel ◽

Michael E. Wiklund

Keyword(s):

Human Factors ◽

Design Process ◽

Organizational Design ◽

Power Industry ◽

Human Factors Engineering ◽

Control Room ◽

Room Design ◽

Process Plant ◽

Management Factors ◽

Engineering Corporation

Engineer/constructor firms responsible for large process plant engineering, including the human-plant interface, have an emerging need for in-house human factors engineering (HFE) expertise. Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation has met his need through the creation of an HFE group. The group was founded as a small, informal, multidisciplinary organization. In an experimental manner, the group was provided the freedom to define its HFE markets within the firm and the process and power industry. Organizational design and management factors related to the functions and effectiveness of the group are discussed.

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Exploring the Design Space Using a Surrogate Model Approach With Digital Human Modeling Simulations

Volume 1B: 38th Computers and Information in Engineering Conference ◽

10.1115/detc2018-86323 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Salman Ahmed ◽

Mihir Sunil Gawand ◽

Lukman Irshad ◽

H. Onan Demirel

Keyword(s):

Human Factors ◽

Surrogate Model ◽

Human Performance ◽

Design Method ◽

Human Subjects ◽

Design Stage ◽

Digital Human Modeling ◽

Design Variables ◽

Human Modeling ◽

Digital Human

Computational human factors tools are often not fully-integrated during the early phases of product design. Often, conventional ergonomic practices require physical prototypes and human subjects which are costly in terms of finances and time. Ergonomics evaluations executed on physical prototypes has the limitations of increasing the overall rework as more iterations are required to incorporate design changes related to human factors that are found later in the design stage, which affects the overall cost of product development. This paper proposes a design methodology based on Digital Human Modeling (DHM) approach to inform designers about the ergonomics adequacies of products during early stages of design process. This proactive ergonomics approach has the potential to allow designers to identify significant design variables that affect the human performance before full-scale prototypes are built. The design method utilizes a surrogate model that represents human product interaction. Optimizing the surrogate model provides design concepts to optimize human performance. The efficacy of the proposed design method is demonstrated by a cockpit design study.

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