Optimal control of biomechanical MBS-Digital Human Models for simulation in the virtual assembly planning (MKS-Menschenmodelle)

The goal of this project is to apply techniques of biomechanics and optimal control to generate realistic human-like motions of the DHM from generic working instructions like for example move a box from A to B. Such a model would enable the engineers to take into account physical workloads and reachability issues in virtual assembly planning.

The digital human is modeled as a biomechanical multibody system with muscles as actuators. The motions of the DHM for specific working instructions are predicted with the help of optimal control, where an objective function accounting for physiological quantities that are relevant for humans is minimized. This new approach enables the user to make quantitative statements about muscle forces and joint loads during assembly, which are important indicators for ergonomic assessment.