An Integrated Simulation System for Human Factors Study.pdf

An Integrated Simulation System for Human Factors Study Ying Wang, Wei Zhang Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China Fouad Bennis, Damien Chablat IRCCyN, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, F44321 Nantes Cedex 3, France Abstract It has been reported that virtual reality can be a useful tool for ergonomics study. The proposed integrated simulation system aims at measuring operator’s performance in an interactive way for 2D control panel design. By incorporating some sophisticated virtual reality hardware/software, the system allows natural human-system and/or human-human interaction in a simulated virtual environment; enables dynamic objective measurement of human performance; and evaluates the quality of the system design in human factors perspective based on the measurement. It can also be for operation training for some 2D control panels. Keywords: virtual reality, human factors, ergonomics, simulation, manikin 1. Introduction Human factors engineering requires that the design of a system should consider the human’s aspects. In other word, any designed system should be user-friendly. However, in many cases, it is not easy to satisfy this requirement because it is difficult to quantify the human’s requirement or the human’s performance. Sometimes, iterative design at the cost of time and money is necessary. In order to reduce the iterations for time and cost concern, designers may use one of the following three approaches, or a combination of them. The first approach is that the designers have the required quantitative data or enough clear understanding about the users. The data may include the anthropometrical data about the users, t