Digital Human Models' Appearance Impact on Observers' Ergonomic Assessment
Journal article, 2005

The objective of this paper is to investigate whether different appearance modes of the digital human models (DHM or manikins) affect the observers when judging a working posture. A case where the manikin is manually assembling a battery in the boot with help of a lifting device is used in the experiment. 16 different pictures were created and presented for the subjects. All pictures have the same background, but include a unique posture and manikin appearance combination. Four postures and four manikin appearances were used. The subjects were asked to rank the pictures after ergonomic assessment based on posture of the manikin. Subjects taking part in the study were either manufacturing engineering managers, simulation engineers or ergonomists. Results show that the different appearance modes affect the ergonomic judgment. A more realistic looking manikin is rated higher than the very same posture visualized with a less natural appearance. Therefore, it is important to educate human simulation tool users to always combine visualizations (pictures) with an objective ergonomic evaluation method.

Appearance

virtual manufacturing

manikin

virtual ergonomics

Author

Dan Lämkull

Chalmers, Product and Production Development, Production Systems

Lars Hanson

Lund University

Roland Örtengren

Chalmers, Product and Production Development, Production Systems

SAE Technical Papers

01487191 (ISSN) 26883627 (eISSN)

Subject Categories

Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics

DOI

10.4271/2005-01-2722

More information

Latest update

3/2/2022 6