Premium
Santos: A New Kind of Virtual Human
Author(s) -
Marler R. Timothy
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.20.5.a844-a
Subject(s) - virtual prototyping , computer science , variety (cybernetics) , kinematics , virtual actor , human–computer interaction , cad , motion (physics) , virtual reality , motion analysis , palette (painting) , simulation , engineering , engineering drawing , artificial intelligence , physics , classical mechanics , operating system
Substantial effort has been directed towards a variety of aspects concerning virtual prototyping and analysis, with significant advances in the fields of computer aided design (CAD), finite element analysis (FEA), dynamic analysis, etc. However, less attention has been paid to developing virtual humans that interact with and evaluate virtual prototypes. Ideally, such avatars would serve as design aids that actually work with and provide feedback for engineers. In addition, they would provide a tool for studying the human body. Santos TM is a new kind of complete whole‐body virtual human that is responding to these needs, through the efforts of the Virtual Soldier Research (VSR) lab at The University of Iowa. Santos TM combines a highly realistic appearance, real‐time simulations, a high number of degrees of freedom (a relatively complex musculoskeletal structure), and a new direct optimization‐based approach that yields predictive autonomy and a robust platform for extensive simulation and ergonomic‐analysis capabilities. How this virtual human is modeled will be discussed, and our approach to kinematic and dynamic human posture and motion prediction will be presented. In this capacity, the advantages of the direct optimization‐based approach are detailed and a palette of capabilities is presented. In addition to the fundamentals of our methods for human motion simulation, an overview of additional projects at VSR is given, touching on hand modeling, clothing modeling, simulation of physiological indices, and a few different efforts concerning muscle modeling.