Ergo-Man

AlexPitt

Hi,

Thought I'd share this personal project with the Onshape Community.  I wanted an realistic ergonomic figure that I could drop into architectural projects. Probably spent far too long on it but it's fun and has been taking my mind off things during the lock-down!

Created almost from scratch in OS. I say "almost" as the head was modelled refering to a downloaded mesh (also from OS public docs)  - and there's various reference images from the web.

He's very flexible -  too much so in some respects as he can twist into impossible postions! And more joint mobility is needed in other areas (I don't think he can put his hand behind his head - hope to fix that later.)

It's a messy work in progress which I'll tidy up once I've fixed the following ...

- A movable right arm
- Some fingers 
- More preset poses (with configured grouping to lock down the postion)
- Maybe a smart outfit for dinner; he's not really dressed appropriately for my professional projects!

Maybe you'll find it useful and fun too!

Any feedback/suggestions welcome!

Alex
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https://cad.onshape.com/documents/bd0a5b1deae46d5b7bb04af9/w/f9e2293557f5d8a1a15b76fc/e/de9d4084a9bec8277eb82a0d

romeograham

Nicely done!

Next challenge - configurations for different body sizes: 5th - 95th percentile man/woman, with some "typical" poses for working / interacting with equipment, seating, moving through space.

Particular care on the dimensions of the head / face for designers working on eyewear, helmets, etc.  Maybe a no-hair configuration for that.

A real human factors resource would be very useful in Onshape!

john_mcclary

Need to stamp a white    On   logo on his chest.
All i hear when i see him is 'Onshape Mann'  (trojan man)

Maybe it's the color of his suit and the super hero poses... 

AlexPitt

@john_mcclary Haha I had to google "Trojan man"!  One day maybe there'll be a curly-haired bearded version in gold lame.

john_mcclary

you lost me at curly hair... apparently the rebranded Trojan man.. 

I was thinking more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWB62nd7VMs

AlexPitt

@romeograham Thanks, yes as well as fingers, office attire and improved mobility, I'd like to add more typical poses as you describe. Size configurability will be an interesting challenge. He's on the larger side, probably around 90th percentile.

romeograham

@AlexPitt You certainly have enough detail in your construction geometry that can be used for configured dimensions (to get different percentiles)...I guess the challenge will be setting up constraints, so you can explicitly configure / define the smallest number of dimensions possible.

Great work so far!

AlexPitt

No proper ergonomics yet (as in percentiles). But he's a little more appropriately dressed with (limited) options for wardrobe, hair, skin tone and even a hat. There's increased mobility in the arms (especially the left which he can now put behind his head.)  I'll work on more poses and dress options. Depending on how long this lockdown lasts, he might even get fingers and thumbs!  

john_mcclary

Very nice

john_mcclary

Can you give ergo-man big hair and a metallica shirt?

I'd like to replace this old dude 

brian_brady

Needs a "girth" parameter for those of us past their prime. 

EvanReese

@AlexPitt
what a madman! this is cool, and actually pretty handy and hard to find when you need it. I assume that's what inspired it of course.

brucebartlett

Nice work!  Is there any reason why you used Named positions rather than Configurations for the assembly positions?  I am thinking it would be more useful to drop into other people's assys if it had positions and configurations.  Also the only way I could see the Positions was make a copy.

AlexPitt

@john_mcclary Maybe I could muster a latter-day James Hetfield hair-do. Nice guitar there! Don't know about a mullet but he'll at least need some fingers to play that Strat.

AlexPitt

@brian_brady Yes! Something like this... https://www.bodyvisualizer.com/male.html

Though no idea how to do that in Onshape!

AlexPitt

@Evan_Reese. Thanks. Handy yes; but even handier with hands!



(No offence intended here folks! This is just the stage I'm at.)

AlexPitt

@brucebartlett Thanks!  I've used named positions because they are nice and quick to work with. Once the revolute limits on joints are set with realistic values, the limbs can free-dragged into position and a "snapshot" taken by creating a new Named Position.
Thanks to a recent OS update, these named postions can now be updated. Simply tweak the pose and hit "update". 

@TimRice at Onshape support has also recommended that I use configured poses. After a brief attempt I couldn't find an easy way to do it.  Will explore further but focused on the hands right now.

Tim also suggested a checkbox to "group all parts"  which is there now (hopefully I've done this in the right way; I'm not sure.) 

Any workflow suggestions are welcome on configuring the poses. Maybe there's an improvement request here: Configurable Named Positions!

EvanReese

I did something similar for a project once and did configure it. I downloaded this model from GrabCAD (or something similar). Then I placed mate connectors at the joints in the Part Studio and applied various transformations (including scale for the 5th and 95th percentiles). I only ended up with a seated position, standing, and striding so it didn't get too complex. It worked well and was very helpful, but one risk of configuring is potential for rebuild time every time you want to move him, whereas named positions shouldn't have that issue. I'd share it but it was part of a project I transferred to my client afterward so I don't have it anymore. If I did it today I'd retain ownership of it in my own document to use as an internal resource. I'm excited to see where you land with this.

brucebartlett

AlexPitt said:

@brucebartlett Thanks!  I've used named positions because they are nice and quick to work with. Once the revolute limits on joints are set with realistic values, the limbs can free-dragged into position and a "snapshot" taken by creating a new Named Position.
Thanks to a recent OS update, these named postions can now be updated. Simply tweak the pose and hit "update". 

@TimRice at Onshape support has also recommended that I use configured poses. After a brief attempt I couldn't find an easy way to do it.  Will explore further but focused on the hands right now.

Tim also suggested a checkbox to "group all parts"  which is there now (hopefully I've done this in the right way; I'm not sure.) 

Any workflow suggestions are welcome on configuring the poses. Maybe there's an improvement request here: Configurable Named Positions!

Using Named Positions makes sense to be separate from configurations as Onshape has been designed but they have their drawbacks in upstream assemblies. What I have tended to do and seems to be very robust is to create a position configuration and use configured limits on mates to drive positions or default ranges of movement.  Ie. for a revolute mate as the default I'll add the range of movement but for a specific position, I'll set the min and max the same. It's a little more work but maks them it much more usable when added as a sub assy . 

AlexPitt

@Evan_Reese sounds like a good project. I can see how transformations to get the poses might have taken some time to set up and affect the rebuild times.

@brucebartlett Thanks, looks like a great technique! Your "Default" config as the free drag model. I'll try it.  
I noticed that when I select a revolute mate, it's current rotational value pops up.  So hopefully I could work through each pose, transcribing these values into such a table to preserve my existing positions.

When thinking about the ergonomics, it occured to me that instead of the mannequin, a basic skeleton could be set up with similar revolute joint limits and pose configs. This skeleton would be constructed from simple extrudes, with configured lengths to get the percentiles.
Then mannequins of various characters could be inserted and their parts grouped to each skeleton bone to get the same movement/pose.

nathan_goings

Looks like the document link is broken.

nick_papageorge073

Hi, I went to use this today and the main version seems very broken. Version 42 seems to work ok, but "make a copy" only works from main. Would you please revert version 42 to main? Thanks.