ErgoToolkit: an ergonomic analysis tool in a virtual manufacturing environment

The virtual manufacturing tools are usually equipped with digital human models for the simulation of manufacturing tasks. This enables designers to analyse alternative design solutions and to obtain ergonomic performance measures. An ergonomic assessment requires the availability of ergonomic analysis tools integrated into the virtual manufacturing process. This article presents ErgoToolkit, which implements ergonomic analysis methods, already available in literature or company practice, into digital tools for ergonomics, integrated into state-of-the-art virtual manufacturing software. These ergonomic tools are: the Posture Definition and Recognition and the Stress Screening. The former provides the functionality of defining and automatically recognising digital human postures, while the latter objectively evaluates ergonomically any unfavourable situations in a manual work process. It is shown that they are viable tools in detecting ergonomic problems, early in a development process, prior to physical installation. The benefits of the tools with the existing industrial practice are discussed. This article also describes technical implementation issues along with the application of the tools in an automotive case study.