An assessment of the realism of digital human manikins used for simulation in ergonomics

In this study, the accuracy of the joint centres of the manikins generated by RAMSIS and Human Builder (HB), two digital human modelling (DHM) systems widely used in industry for virtual ergonomics simulation, was investigated. Eighteen variously sized females and males were generated from external anthropometric dimensions and six joint centres (knee, hip and four spine joints) were compared with their anatomic locations obtained from the three-dimensional reconstructed bones from a low-dose X-ray system. Both RAMSIS and HB could correctly reproduce external anthropometric dimensions, while the estimation of internal joint centres location presented an average error of 27.6 mm for HB and 38.3 mm for RAMSIS. Differences between both manikins showed that a more realistic kinematic linkage led to better accuracy in joint location. This study opens the way to further research on the relationship between the external body geometry and internal skeleton in order to improve the realism of the internal skeleton of DHMs, especially for a biomechanical analysis requiring information of joint load and muscle force estimation.Practitioner summary: This study assessed two digital human modelling (DHM) systems widely used in industry for virtual ergonomics. Results support the need of a more realistic human modelling, especially for a biomechanical analysis and a standardisation of DHMs