An evaluation method using virtual reality to optimize ergonomic design in manual assembly and maintenance scenarios

Industrial maintenance and assembly (IMA) is an important activity for complex products, in which manual operations play an important role. Using virtual reality (VR) to support ergonomic design dates back many years. However, many applications only focus on the immersive simulation of IMA processes and ignore the quantitative evaluation based on the simulation data. In this paper, an integrated VR-based method for the ergonomic optimization of manual operations is proposed. The proposed method effectively integrates multiple VR hardware devices, motion capture data, and the evaluation method in the DELMIA^™ environment. The method can capture the real-time motion data of the user. When the user conducts immersive simulation, the motion data is transformed and calculated, which maps and drives the virtual task in DELMIA. The configurable rapid upper limb assessment method is integrated into the system. The working posture can be evaluated and analyzed based on real human data according to actual needs. A practical case demonstrates the effectiveness of the method. Compared with traditional methods, the proposed method can not only enable designers to conduct immersive IMA simulation to improve design cognition, but also comprehensively analyze and evaluate the ergonomic design. For the designers, the time consumed and skill requirements are reduced, and the design efficiency and accuracy are improved.