Systems Engineering in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

7Virtualization of the Human in the Digital Factory

Daniele Regazzoni and Caterina Rizzi

Synopsis

In the paradigm of the digital factory, human beings have to be considered as the focal point of technologies, activities, and information. This requires work environments that consider the needs and coexistence of users with different levels of experience, age, habits, multicultural environments, and sociocultural conditions that vary from company to company. The proper integration of workers with a high variety of skills, competencies, educational levels, and cultures is considered a great challenge for the factory of the future. In such a context, the development of a population of human avatars that interact with the environment and the products by assuming postures, supporting musculoskeletal loads, and repeating activities over time, permits the impact of new technologies and industrial processes to be effectively analyzed. This chapter presents an overview of virtual humans/digital human models (DHMs) that can be considered along the design and manufacturing processes. First, a brief historical description is given together with the main problems and the potential applications of such virtual human models. Then, a taxonomy that subdivides DHMs into five main categories is presented. The integration of DHMs with virtual/augmented reality technology and motion capture systems is also considered, in order to improve the level of interaction and realism within the virtual environment ...