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Product category: 3D CAD software
News Release from: Siemens PLM Software | Subject: Jack in Osaka
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 12 March 2004

Digital huamn to help design ergonomic
homes

UGS PLM Solutions is announcing that a new system to design human-centred, comfortable living environments, launched by Osaka Gas Co, Ltd, features Jack, the digital human modelling software.

UGS PLM Solutions, the product lifecycle management subsidiary of EDS, is announcing a new system to design human-centred, comfortable living environments, launched by Osaka Gas Co, Ltd, featuring Jack, UGS PLM Solutions' digital human modelling software Osaka Gas Co evaluated several digital human models before selecting and integrating UGS PLM Solutions' Jack software - an ergonomics and human factors product that helps enterprises in various industries to improve the ergonomics of product designs and workplace tasks - as a core component of the CUPS (comfort, usability, performance, safety) system which the company will launch in April 2004

Jack, the commercially available digital human solution from UGS PLM Solutions' E-factory digital manufacturing group, supports a product lifecycle approach for customers who wish to use one solution for all their digital human requirements.

It is a powerful motion simulation environment that is used for validating proposed build sequences of products, while making sure the process and tooling complement an ergonomically friendly and productive environment.

As with all UGS PLM Solutions products, Jack provides an "open by design" foundation, allowing customers to adapt Jack to a wide variety of design centric applications.

Jack enables users to position biomechanically accurate digital humans of various sizes in virtual environments, assign them tasks and analyse their performance.

Jack digital humans can tell engineers what they can see and reach, how comfortable they are, when and why they're getting hurt, when they're getting tired and other important ergonomics-related information.

This information helps organisations design safer and more effective products faster and for less cost.

Ultimately, Jack helps companies bring factories online faster and optimise productivity while improving worker safety.

As Japan's elderly population increases rapidly and lifestyles diversify, the creation of environments that meet the needs of individual consumers is becoming an urgent task.

Osaka Gas' CUPS project, initiated in 1999, was developed to measure, understand and accumulate data on various activities in the home by elderly people, housewives and others in an effort to improve compatibility between products and people in their living environments.

"After comparative analysis of several digital human modelling software, Jack's advanced technology and excellent operational track record made it the clear winner," said Masaru Hotehama, research fellow for Energy and Information Technology at Energy Technology Laboratories of Osaka Gas.

"Jack's ability to evaluate various physical functions such as posture and eyesight, and its Ovako Working Posture Analysis System (OWAS) capability is second to none.

"We chose Jack for its ease of integration into Osaka Gas' proprietary behavioural algorithms and its high degree of flexibility in the development process, enabling us to import and run programs from external sources," continued Hotehama.

"In a kitchen remodelling evaluation process, we are able to simulate users' behaviour based on the positions of kitchen appliances and analyse whether the users would be put in any uncomfortable positions.

"When creating a cardio-load prediction model to check an environment's impact on elderly people, we were easily able to run executable files on Jack that were developed independently by Osaka Gas on Microsoft's Visual Basic," continued Hotehama.

"In terms of overall assessment of living environments conducted by the CUPS system, Jack's scalability allowed us to create our own interface and format to access and evaluate the results".

Homepro, an Osaka Gas subsidiary, integrated the cardio-load prediction model of the CUPS system in the "Physical Demand Simulator in Bathroom" released in December 2003.

This tool simulates how blood pressure and muscles are impacted when users get up from a toilet seat.

Osaka Gas intends to market the CUPS system to other design industries which can benefit from this solution including home and appliance makers; plants and factory designers; and retail space planners among others.

The CUPS system for living-space design was developed as part of the Behaviour-Based Human Environment Creation Technology R and D project promoted by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (formerly Ministry of International Trade and Industry).

"We are delighted to see our digital human model, Jack, selected as a tool that can adapt to the requirements of this demanding Osaka Gas application," said Ted McFadden, vice president E-factory products UGS PLM Solutions.

"The Osaka Gas team has been very successful in applying Jack to a unique application, achieving extraordinary results".

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