Applying Empirical Data on Upper Torso Movement to Real-time Collision-free Reach Tasks

Simulating human reach is still challenging when considering complex interactions with the environment. Standard approaches involve inverse kinematics (IK) methods and usually require a complete but exponential cost search in configuration space. In ergonomic applications, both “naturalness” and interactive performance are important. We describe a real-time, collision-free, sternum-rooted IK solution for an articulated human figure based on motion capture data, human strength models, and multi-joint coordination functions. Movement paths are discovered through spatial search in a partitioned workspace. The system generates natural collision-free reach motions in real-time. The resulting animations and statistics demonstrate the efficacy of this approach.