Comparison of Measured and Predicted Human Whole-Body Inertial Properties

Critical in vehicle crash simulations, human body data sets include mass, moments of inertia (MOIs), and ellipsoid size for each body segment, and location and resistive torque properties for each joint. The Generator of Body Data (GEBOD) program generates these human data sets for use in multibody programs. The objective of this study was to validate GEBOD estimates by directly measuring whole-body inertial properties of 69 volunteers and comparing the results with values calculated by the Articulated Total Body (ATB) model using GEBOD data sets. While the predicted whole-body center of gravity (CG) averaged within 1 cm of the measured values in the horizontal direction, vertically the errors were much larger. The predicted principal MOI were consistently 5%-30% lower than the measured values.