Research in human modeling and simulation pertains to creating human life on the computer, digital avatars that walk, talk, and act like humans do. The idea is to create intelligent behavior that leads to allowing these digital humans to test the virtual world, products that are not yet created, thus reducing the amount of physical prototypes that are needed to transfer digital designs into manufacturing. Research in thus area encompasses multi-disciplinary efforts that include biomechanics, gaming engines, virtual reality, kinematics and dynamics, posture and motion prediction, muscle and anatomical modeling, fatigue, and physiological measures and simulations. Research in human modeling and simulation at the University of Iowa is focused on a large effort called the Virtual Soldier Research program (www.digital-humans.org) where this technology is aimed at answering serious questions such: How long can a soldier do a task? How many soldiers do we need to accomplish this task? Are you able to operate this equipment? As a result of this research, Santos™ was created, a realistic intelligent human model.
Associated Faculty: Karim Abdel-Malek and Nicole M. Grosland (BME),Jia Lu (MIE), Soura Dasgupta (ECE), Colby Swan and Jasbir Arora (CEE).