Simulating human bodymotion

Modern manufacturing industry demands that products be designed for the comfort and accessibility of consumers as well as workplaces for the health and safety of employees. These designs should be constructed in a virtual world. Digital human models (DHM) are required for these virtual worlds for manufacturing designs from an ergonomic perspective. One important aspect of human behaviour that is relevant to ergonomic analysis is volitional1, task-oriented movement. There is substantial variation in the way that people move that depends on their physical size, gender, age and other factors. Predicting human motion and modelling this variation is a task for which statistical methods can be useful. Even so, there is a wide range of other approaches to motion prediction. Human motion modelling is also used in a range of other areas such as sport, neuroscience and movie and video game production. The objectives in these areas vary, and while the methods we present here can be useful, other approaches may be better. For example, in video games, the characters perform motions from a limited and recalculated library of motions due to the demands of real-time performance.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering