The Altair Partner Alliance, matchmakers for third party software on Hyperworks simulation software, has announced a new addition to its lineup: SantosPro, a platform for human performance modeling. Developed by SantosHuman, SantosPro supports “human-centric” analysis to help companies design more user-friendly and injury-free products and spaces.
In designing industrial equipment, office spaces or construction vehicle cabins, for example, risk and usability factors may not be obvious from typical simulations. Human flexibility, strength, balance, posture, vision, clothing and other necessary equipment can carry complications unforeseen by pure physics analysis. Environment and external forces can also increase danger, decrease efficiency of movement or affect a person’s ability to perform a job well.
Thus, SantosPro helps engineers to integrate human mobility and needs into their designs during the early stages of development. Users can incorporate considerations such as range of shoulder motion, ergonomic factors or limits of a typical person’s arm strength into their simulations. This virtual testing of mechanical usability and injury risk reduces the physical prototype iterations needed in a product assessment.
Multiple industries have adopted this integration of human modeling with research and development, aiming for a more efficient approach that improves product quality. Automotive, medical equipment, defense, industrial machinery, aerospace and consumer goods companies are finding that combining human-in-the-loop testing with typical engineering modeling accelerates optimization. It also offers a validated method of predicting risk exposure and user friendliness.
How easy it is to reach a bolt, the best layout for a room so that we won’t trip on furniture or how far we can turn our necks to reach for a button—these are all examples of things that can be incorporated into the preliminary stages of the design cycle. This is great news for customers of all industries —it means that products will be optimized with us in mind very early on.
As for Altair and SantosHuman, this means a partnership that combines two important facets of engineering, simulation and human-in-the-loop, expanding their target markets. “Digital human modeling is moving towards higher fidelity models and more extensive integration between models,” said Tim Marler, chief research officer at SantosHuman. “Seamless communication between analysis methods and tools is becoming more critical and more feasible, and this partnership provides a unique step in this direction.”
The Altair Hyperworks product suite provides tools for a range of physics analysis needs, including computational fluid dynamics, electromagnetics, mechanical and manufacturing tests and vehicle impact and dynamics.
You can read more about the partnership between Altair and SantosHuman at the Altair website.
Source: http://www.engineering.com/
