Slide1: Anca DRAGHICI, George DRAGHICI “Politehnica” University of Timisoara Mircea NITULESCU “Transilvania” University of Brasov


PRESENTATION’S STRUCTURE:: PRESENTATION’S STRUCTURE: 1. INTRODUCTION - ANTHROPOMETRICAL WORKPLACE DESIGN 2. ERGONOMICS VIRTUAL DESIGN USING CATIA V5 2.1. Facilities offer by CATIA V5 – short description 2.2. Ergonomics virtual design methodology 3. CONCLUSIONS ABOUT HUMAN FACTOR ANALYSIS IN VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING


1. INTRODUCTION - ANTHROPOMETRICAL WORKPLACE DESIGN: 1. INTRODUCTION - ANTHROPOMETRICAL WORKPLACE DESIGN The context of the research problems: Product Ergonomics = the activities of ergonomics at user-friendly design of products. Production Ergonomics = the design of humane working conditions during the production process “Micro “ and “Macro Ergonomics” deals with the optimisation of the relationships in the system “Man – Technology – Organisation“


Slide4: Macro-ergonomic tasks in the socio-technical design of the system Micro-ergonomic focused on the structural system of human work.


Slide5: The anthropometrical workplace design concentrates on the layout of the vision area, the grasping area and the motion area of the feet, on the layout of body supports as well as on the design of displays and controls. Besides the knowledge of the respective sensory perception barriers and conditions which are important for displays and controls, the design of the area that one can touch and reach with his foot as well as body supports, mainly the various height of human beings, play a major role. By percentiling the different body measures one attempts to deal with this problem systematically. Moreover, to simplify the often complex geometrical design problems, computer-generated human models (3D-models, manikins) were developed which allowed for the possibility of designing workplaces by CAD. The field of Micro Ergonomics is the analysis of the aspects within the man-machine-system (MMS). This analysis can be done, by considering the information flow in the MMS = systems ergonomics by taking into account the geometrical situation of the workplace and tools = anthropometrical workplace design - Our research context!


2. ERGONOMICS VIRTUAL DESIGN USING CATIA V52.1. Facilities offer by CATIA V5 – short description: The process of ergonomics design using CATIA V5 is possible by using the Ergonomics Design and Analysis module Human Builder - Using this section can be define and create the probable user of the product or system that is, in fact, the human operator represented by a manikin. It can be manipulated as is needed in the design process for defining the human interface and it can be settled in a determinate position. Human Measurements Editor - The section allowed the designer to personalise the manikin dimensions and to select its work position. 2. ERGONOMICS VIRTUAL DESIGN USING CATIA V5 2.1. Facilities offer by CATIA V5 – short description


Slide7: Human Posture Analysis allows analysing all quantitative and qualitative aspects of manikin posture. Whole body and localised postures can be examined, scored and iterated to determine operator comfort and performance when interacting with the product in accordance with published comfort databases. Human Activity Analysis allow to maximise human comfort, safety, and performance through a wide range of advanced ergonomics analysis tools that comprehensively evaluate all elements of a human’s interactions with a product and specifically analyse how a mannequin will interact with objects in its virtual environment. These products are combined to create a fully integrated Human Engineering Design solution


2.2. Ergonomics virtual design methodology: 2.2. Ergonomics virtual design methodology A. Ergonomics virtual design methodology for pre-design products


CASE STUDY: EDA proposed methodology for optimising the students work position in the Ergonomics Lab (short demonstration for the ergonomic design process for an office desk where the human operator has to sit and to develop his work duties using a computer).: CASE STUDY: EDA proposed methodology for optimising the students work position in the Ergonomics Lab (short demonstration for the ergonomic design process for an office desk where the human operator has to sit and to develop his work duties using a computer). The manikin’s variable edition The desk office design The office desk, the chair, the flour and the manikin work position


Slide10: The monitor distance verification The manikin’s vision visual ergonomics design


Slide11: B. Ergonomics virtual design methodology for new product design


CASE STUDY: EDA module is used for defining the probable user and the optimal score for the human postural and activity analysis. These mean to analyse the work positions and activities in the context of the anthropometrical workplace design. Using the proposed virtual ergonomics methodology there have been determine the user-friendly workplace by using the postural analysis and the human activity analysis in the case of a new machine-tool design process.: CASE STUDY: EDA module is used for defining the probable user and the optimal score for the human postural and activity analysis. These mean to analyse the work positions and activities in the context of the anthropometrical workplace design. Using the proposed virtual ergonomics methodology there have been determine the user-friendly workplace by using the postural analysis and the human activity analysis in the case of a new machine-tool design process. General definition of the work-place - milling NC machine-tool


Slide13: Aspects of the human posture and activity analysis (the establishment of the lateral commands position)


Slide14: Aspects of the human activity analysis (verifications of the human posture when the buttons of the command panels are pressed)


Slide15: Aspects of the human activity analysis in case of the NC lathe


Slide16: Aspects of the human activity analysis - visual ergonomics verifications for the NC lather work place design


3. CONCLUSIONS ABOUT HUMAN FACTOR ANALYSIS IN VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING: 3. CONCLUSIONS ABOUT HUMAN FACTOR ANALYSIS IN VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING Product manufacture Handling, assembling, packaging and maintenance by human operators Full-size mock-ups of the product Life-size human models or real users (manikin) EVALUATE Safety, ergonomics, visibility, manoeuvrability, etc. Human factor aspects of manufacturing and assembly operations, can be studied extensively using virtual prototyping techniques.


Slide18: Virtual prototyping software tools are using a variety of techniques including manipulation and animation of programmable virtual biomechanical manikins. These tools can be used to evaluate design alternatives: the evaluation of a work centre against common criteria including production rate, unit cost, health and safety risks, efficiency, quality measures, user friendliness, maintenance procedures and component accessibility…. Until recently, the available computer speed was insufficient to provide smooth and realistic animations, especially when the product detail and complexity were high. Simple 2D and 3D motion simulations are not adequately flexible to provide accurate and useful feedback for ergonomics studies. However, with the increasing availability and affordability of very powerful dedicated graphics workstations, large computer memory and more efficient and sophisticated software algorithms that avoid tying down the computer processing power with unnecessary model details, the aforementioned problem will become much less of an issue.


Slide19: Integration of virtual prototyping with virtual reality is enabling user interactions with 3D models that are more realistic. Thus, better representation of the behaviour of physical objects under simulated real-world conditions and physical laws such as gravity, friction, stiffness, etc., is becoming possible. Paradigms for investigations and natural experimentation using virtual reality and virtual prototyping, especially regarding the verification of assembly and maintenance processes have been already solve. Ultimately, evaluation of human factor aspects can reveal faults, which are then propagated back either automatically (via new parametric values of design features) or manually (as modified product specifications) up along the design stream. Seamless integration of CAD with methods engineering and other human factor analysis tools is available commercially. However, automatic and speedy correction of design faults after performing such analysis requires customisation of the off-the-shelf software.