A Motion Simulation Approach Integrated into a Design Engineering Process

In order to efficiently facilitate car design, it is necessary for digital human models, not only to simulate realistic human behavior, motion and associated discomfort, but also to help the designers integrate the simulation results into a design engineering process. After a recent European project (REAL MAN, IST 2000-29357) which proposed and demonstrated some promising concepts in the area of motion simulation, a program called RPx was launched by Renault and INRETS to develop a simulation tool enabling the integration of motion simulation into the design process. Motion simulation is becoming necessary for car interior design as the evaluation only by postural simulation is not sufficient to assess complex tasks such as ingress/egress or door handling.

The objective of this paper is to present this simulation tool and to show how it can be used in design process. This is a data-based approach. The first step is the creation of a database collected experimentally. The second step concerns the simulation approach which copies how people perform their motions. According to the needs encountered in design process, the RPx tool proposes three simulation possibilities: single individual, virtual experiment or population simulation. A single individual simulation is mainly motivated for quick inspection and design illustration, whereas virtual experiment and population simulation can be used for simulating user's group and population variability. An emphasis will also be given to the possibilities of the generation of hierarchical motion swept volumes and their applications in the design activities. Several applications will be shown in order to illustrate the underlying process for motion simulation and its integration in ergonomic evaluation.