Ergonomics

Ergonomics is an important factor to consider in order to keep workers healthy, avoid injuries and maintain productivity and production quality. With IMMA, it is possible to perform ergonomic studies already in a virtual development stage. The foundation is a biomechanical model that allows fast generation of complex motions that are as comfortable as possible.

Detail

Similarly to a human, it is possible for the IMMA manikin to perform motions with different positioning of the body. The biomechanical model of the IMMA manikin is built as a simplified human skeleton and consists of 82 bone segments that are connected by joints and have, in total, 162 degrees of freedom. A comfort function is used to determine the positions of the manikin that are ergonomically sound. The comfort is based on ergonomic criteria of the biomechanical model and has been formalized to fit the generic mathematical framework of the IMMA manikin. The user instructs the manikin to work in different postures and interact with the environment, and based on the biomechanical model, a motion incorporating the kinematic constraints, balance, contact forces, collision avoidance and comfort is automatically computed.

Application areas

The biomechanical skeleton and the corresponding ergonomic criteria are core functionality in IMMA that are used to compute complex motions that are as comfortable as possible, and to provide data for ergonomic studies.

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