Virtual human modeling for interactive assembly and disassembly operation in virtual reality environment

Real operators are the initiators in assembly and disassembly activities. They participate throughout the whole process. In this sense, as an avatar of a real operator, virtual human (VH) plays an important role in virtual assembly and maintenance simulations. After detailed analysis of interactive assembly and disassembly process, the function requirements for VH are defined. Based on the defined requirements, the following works are done. First, a real-time driving model is established with a dynamic constraint applied to support personalized human model driving. Then, a driving error model is proposed for quantitatively analysis of VH’s driving error coming from the motion capture system. After that, on the basis of constraint processing method, an interactive operation modeling method for VH is presented. This method deals with interactive operation modeling in scenarios where VH manipulates the product directly, VH manipulates tools, and VH manipulates the product using tools. Finally, an assembly simulation for automobile engine connecting rod caps is implemented and a user survey is carried out. The survey result demonstrates the feasibility and validity of the proposed model and method.