Digital Human Modeling for Indian Anthropometry

Abstract

Traditionally, computer manikins are used to convert the anthropometric data into more usable form for industrial application. Several product design software offer the option for creating digital manikins, for example, RAMSIS, CATIA, UGS, DELMIA, etc. These software make use of various boundary manikin methods such as multi percentile approach, central region boundary approach, Principal Component Analysis, etc. to create digital models. The anthropometric data for Indian population has been largely missing. Efforts have been undertaken by various academic institutions in India to collect this data over last several years. With the boom in the automotive industry, demand for collection of statistically robust anthropometric data has arisen from different segments of the industry. To meet this requirement, the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) undertook a 3D whole body scanning survey in India. In this survey, data of more than 5600 volunteers has been collected. This is the first 3D whole body survey conducted in India. The research aims at reviewing different concepts of digital human modeling and applying a suitable manikin generation technique to the anthropometric data generated by the SIZE INDIA survey. No such effort has been made before to convert this data into digital human models, in India.