SantosTM Accomplishments
    Real-Time, Dynamics, and intelligence

IN this section, we list our major technical contributions in the various areas.  In many cases, we feel that these result have become possible only because of our multi-disciplinary approach to research.  

A. Large degree of freedom accurate modeling of the human musculoskeletal system. Using the Denavit-Hartneberg method, typically used in the field of robotics, we have been able to develop a spophisticated model of the human body.

B. Real-time environment.  Unlike the current state of the technology, Santos lives in a real-time environment. You ask him to do something, and he does it right away...no waiting...no manipulation of the mannequin...this, we believe, is a revolutionary way of interaction with the digital avatars. 

C. Dynamics without integration.   Indeed, to calculate motion profiles for every joint of a large chain (such as the case for the human body), an integrator is typically required.  Expensive dynamic packages do exist but are limited to a small number of degrees-of-freedom. Our true multi-disciplinary results have yielded a novel method for doing dynamics without the use of integrators, but rather using optimization techniques.  This is a significant contribution on its own, one that will have a significant impact on all fields where forward dynamics is needed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

D. Modeling and simulation of clothing

E. Modeling and simulation of muscle fatigue using differential equations to predict how much Calcium influx is going into the muscles, and as a result, how much the muscle gets fatigued.

F. A NURBS-FEM real-time method for calculating muscle deformations and stress.

G. A stable Haptic algorithm for use with many virtual reality haptic devices and systems. 

H. Live monitoring of vitals for Santos...now we are able to "watch" Santos' blood pressure, metabolism, and hear rate as he conducts a task.

I. Workspace - Reach envelope calculation and visualization.  Our Jabian rank-deficiency method has proven itself over the past 10 years as an effective method for calculating the workspace for robotic manipulators...now, it has been implemented into the Santos environment with great visuals.

J. Realistic and immersive visualization.   Again, our multi-discplinary team has enabled Santos to live in the Virtual Reality world, with excellent realism, such that skin, muscle contraction, and the graphical environment all look very real and very natural.  

 

 


 

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