Virtual human simulation integrated into virtual reality applications is
mainly used for virtual representation of the user in virtual environment or
for interactions between the user and the virtual avatar for cognitive tasks.
In this paper, in order to prevent musculoskeletal disorders, the integration
of virtual human simulation and VR application is presented to facilitate
physical ergonomic evaluation, especially for physical fatigue evaluation of a
given population. Immersive working environments are created to avoid expensive
physical mock-up in conventional evaluation methods. Peripheral motion capture
systems are used to capture natural movements and then to simulate the physical
operations in virtual human simulation. Physical aspects of human's movement
are then analyzed to determine the effort level of each key joint using inverse
kinematics. The physical fatigue level of each joint is further analyzed by
integrating a fatigue and recovery model on the basis of physical task
parameters. All the process has been realized based on VRHIT platform and a
case study is presented to demonstrate the function of the physical fatigue for
a given population and its usefulness for worker selection.