Daimler Trucks will reveal for the first time “Ergonomics Simulation in Trucks”, part of the ARVIDA project at CeBIT in Hanover, that will take place from 16 to 20 March.
The ARVIDA project stands for Applied Reference Architecture for Virtual Services and Applications and the objective is to address the ergonomic needs of a truck driver, starting from the development process of a truck cab. Mercedes-Benz engineers use virtual tools in order to check if all the needed controls are easy to reach to or how simple it is for the truck driver to get into the cab.
Daimler AG collaborates on this project with the Institute for Mechatronics in Chemintz, Human Solutions Assyst GmbH in Kaiserslautern and Advanced Realtime Tracking (ART). 22 partners are involved in the various projects of ARVIDA, founded by the German Federal Ministry for Research and Industry.
At CeBIT, Daimler will make a demonstration of the virtual tracking scene “Climbing into the cab” on a Mercedes-Benz Actros. The developers are using a software called RAMSIS that simulates a model of a human, although it is not yet able to show movements.
Richard Sauerbier, who works in ergonomics research, believes that “compared with a passenger car, studies into the ergonomics of a truck cover a much wider spectrum. Movements inside the truck, such as lying, standing or opening of stowage compartments, represents a major challenge.”
By the final stage of the ARVIDA project, so many movement modules will be stored in a pool that it will be possible to generate any desired, realistic human motion sequences from them in the lab for the purposes of new ergonomics analyses.
According to Project manager Stechow: “This will not only speed up the process of vehicle design, but it will also give us greater design freedom in all Virtual Reality studies.”
