ABSTRACT
Simulation as a concept has been around for most of the history of humanity, for example as a means of planning activities such as battles before deploying resources (strategic use), for providing personnel with appropriate skills in a safe/controlled environment (training use) and to allow people to escape reality to engage in ctional worlds (entertainment use) (Vincenzi et al., 2009). In the modern era, computer-based simulation is now widely used in ergonomic and human factors (E/HF) research and practice as a cost-effective means of investigating peoples’ interactions with technology (Wickens et al., 2004). It can support predictions of the consequences of a design, allow detailed investigation of human performance or support training for scenarios which are too dangerous in the real world. Simulation purports to replicate elements from the real world and also has an element of pretence. Both aspects raise fundamental questions regarding both the characteristics of a simulation for the purposes of E/HF study (how real does it have to be, and what elements are actually important?) and the subsequent performance and behaviour observed within a simulation environment (how do people respond to the pretence of a simulation?). This chapter addresses these questions by considering the broad concept of simulation, together with the more specic area of Digital Human Modelling (DHM) in which digital representations of humans, developed using human data to be as realistic as possible, are used within a virtual environment for ergonomics analysis (Demirel and Duffy, 2007; Landau, 2006). We provide an overview of current uses and issues with simulation and DHM, including a discussion of validity and delity. Information is
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 201 Simulation and DHM within the Human-Machine System ..........................................................202 Primary Application Areas and Industries .....................................................................................202 Fidelity and Validity in Human Factors Simulators .......................................................................206 Sickness in Simulators ...................................................................................................................208 Constructive Simulation: DHM Software Packages and Modelled Characteristics ......................209
