Motion generation and virtual simulation in a digital environment

The growing complexity in product design and manufacturing processes has made virtual prototyping an important new approach that enhances products and process development. Considering the ergonomic issues evident in product lifecycles, digital human modelling (DHM) is adopted for virtual simulation and proactive evaluation. A motion generation from semantics (MGS) system is proposed in this research. The MGS system features include virtual prototyping, natural language instruction, a method time measurement (MTM) translator and motion generator. The system was implemented using product lifecycle management (PLM) software and validated in an automotive manufacturing company. The practice of intuitively generating manual operations and conducting virtual simulations enables the system planners to quickly respond to manufacturing process changes and recursively improve the tooling and process design flexibility and efficiency.