The group human modeling of the Lehrstuhl für Ergonomie at the Technische Universität München has the aim to develop an autonomous digital human model. On this way a general dynamic discomfort model for posture and movement shall be developed in order to predict the perceived discomfort of a human during a task (e.g. lifting of a weight). This can be used to provide suggestions for the concept of a new product.
Using a discomfort model in the dynamic situation that is based on force and posture is unique and leads to a new quality, because the rate of the force or torque potential of a person can be taken into consideration. Motion prediction under load will be improved. This can help to solve current questions of automotive companies like ingress/egress.
In this paper a discomfort model for an arm movement is described and generated in the context of a lifting task. It is derived from a static model and accounts for the force level of a subject. A multi body model of the human arm is used to predict the local and global discomfort. Its attributes and the future development are discussed.
