Simulation of Standard Control Actuators in Dynamic Virtual Environments

Realistic behavior of control actuators is important for virtual proto-typing applications. We present a systematic approach for modeling such articulated components as described in the European Standard EN 894-3. Control actuators may have several rotational and translational degrees of freedom (DOFs), possibly with discrete lock states. During user interactions, information about the actuators´ manipulation is collected and made available to the higher application layers in the form of interaction events. This allows for recording and playback of demonstrated manipulation sequences for many purposes, such as ergonomics evaluations involving virtual humans. The framework uses XML for declaration and is implemented using a freely available physics engine.