Digital Human Models enable to evaluate very early a design architecture as they can interact with a digital environment. However, the question of which and how many manikins should be used to evaluate an architecture remains open. Most frequently, only a few manikins, representing the 5th, the 50th and the 95th percentile are used. Evaluations, based on so few manikins, give only rough ideas of how well the design fits a population of users. This paper proposes to use a sample population of manikins, randomly generated and representative in terms of anthropometric dimensions of the target population of users.
The application case evaluates a truck instep and handle geometric configuration. The simulated posture is the one of the manikin reaching the handles with the hands and the first step with the left foot, the right foot remaining on the ground. For such a task, the possible collision between the left knee and the second step has to be evaluated and avoided.
At first, the two conclusions of both approaches are compared for a specific truck instep. The questions which can be answered by the simulation of a large number of manikins are highlighted. In a second stage, the influences of two parameters (the handles height and the first step height) are evaluated in order to give some guidelines to the designers. Finally, this paper discusses about the anthropometric and biomechanics data that would help to have a more complete evaluation of such a task such as joint limits or joint torques.
