A memory-based model for planning target reach postures in the presence of obstructions

Abstract

Existing posture prediction and motion simulation models generally lack the capability of simulating human obstruction avoidance during target reach. This compromises the utility of digital human models for ergonomics, as many design problems involve interactions between humans and obstructions. To address this problem, this paper presents a novel memory-based posture planning (MBPP) model, which plans reach postures that avoid obstructions. In this model, the task space is partitioned into small regions called cells. For a given human figure, each cell is linked to a memory that stores various alternative postures for reaching the cell. When a posture planning problem is given in terms of a target and an obstruction configuration, the model examines postures belonging to the relevant cell, selects collision-free ones and modifies them to exactly meet the hand target acquisition constraint. Simulation results showed that the MBPP model is capable of rapidly and robustly planning reach postures for various scenarios.