Virtual Soldier Research Program Receives $375,641 Honda Contract

Santos™ Helps Reduce Time and Costs Associated with Prototypes

Researchers in the University of Iowa College of Engineering Center for Computer Aided Design (CCCAD) have received a two-year, $375,641 contract from Honda Research and Development Americas Inc. to further develop an intelligent computer manikin.

In particular, the contract will further develop CCAD's Virtual Soldier Project and its digital model of a human being called Santos™ by developing posture prediction with external loads, validation of the model and zone differentiation tools.

"With this project, Santos™ will be able to automatically choose a comfortable posture to drive a car, smoothly operate clutch and gas pedals, and shift the transmission lever," said Jingzhou Yang, CCAD research engineer, project leader and currently assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.

Co-principal investigators on the project are: Karim Abdel-Malek, CCAD and VSR director and UI professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering; Steve Beck, CCAD research and development projects manager and VSR senior projects manager; Joo Kim, VSR postdoctoral research scholar; Tim Marler, VSR senior research scientist; and Salam Rahmatalla, VSR research engineer.

"Working with Honda engineers to advance the state of the art in human simulation will help us address new questions in human factors and associated simulation work," said Abdel-Malek. "Their experience in design for comfort and the Santos™ technology are perfect matches to advance this technology."

VSR aims to test digital mockups of products and systems before they are built, thus reducing significant costs and time associated with making prototypes. The digital soldier Santos™ is biomechanically accurate, can test new armor configurations, and can attempt to execute various tasks. Composed of a group of 36 multidisciplinary researchers, VSR conducts basic and applied research for creating new technologies dealing with digital human modeling and simulation.