This Topic calls for the development of a biomechanically correct, parametric human model to express relevant body stress metrics in order to design, develop, and test safe methods for tactile human-robot interactions in a simulation environment. A parametric musculoskeletal model with full body surface for tactile human-robot interaction simulation is proposed, which integrates a scalable musculoskeletal (MS) model with a parametric human shape (surface) model. Whereas the MS model provides bio-fidelic description of the body muscular-skeleton, mass distribution, and inertial properties, aiming to simulate human body biomechanical performance with high accuracy, the surface model represents true body shape, intending to provide accurate geometric boundary for the contact between human body and robot/environment. A desired model can be created by choosing gender, weight, height, and other body dimensions. For the model creation and utilization, a software system is proposed to leverage the capabilities of existing human modeling tools including OpenSim and to utilize the streamlined procedure and novel methods proposed. It will provide graphic user interfaces for user to create and manipulate the model interactively, and APIs so that the model and key functions can be easily used by other software tools and seamlessly integrated into external workflows.
