From the front lines to the assembly line for virtual soldier Santos.
There’s a new guy on the assembly line, and this former soldier is proving to be an inexhaustible tough guy with great military credentials, according to Ford.
Named Santos, he’s being tasked with both helping to improve quality and to reduce worker fatigue in a job that can quickly strain his flesh-and-blood colleagues.
Able to “walk, talk and answer questions,” Santos came to digital life as a virtual soldier, developed for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) by the University of Iowa to help reduce the strain on real GIs. Now, he’s being put to work on Ford’s assembly lines in an effort to improve ergonomics.
“Creating the safest and most ergonomic way to build a vehicle is a trial-and-error process – in recent years technology has allowed this process to happen in the virtual world,” said Allison Stephens, ergonomics technical specialist with Vehicle Operations Manufacturing Engineering. “Santos takes this to a new level. He can perform a task and tell us whether over months and years it will cause back strain, for example, and we can make adjustments until we find the optimal way to get the job done.”
Santos follows in the digitized footsteps of previous assembly line avatars Jack and Jill. They experienced the same physical limitations as real workers when it came to bending and stretching on the line. The breakthrough with the new digital system is that Santos effectively “feels” the strain of the job and can verbally relay his experiences.
“This software is a new experience – you can get feedback. You can see body strength in real time. You can see fatigue. When you have that ability to see motion, to predict motion, you can work that into your designs and programs,” said senior researcher Tim Marler.
And into the design of a vehicle and the tools used to build it on the assembly line.
“We can change things and see the effect; that’s what predictive dynamics brings to the table,” explained Jay Johnson, CEO of SantosHuman Inc., which works in conjunction with the University of Iowa.
The DoD and University of Iowa began working on Santos in 2004, and the government has so far invested $10 million in the project. Ford is cooperating on the program with General Motors and Chrysler, and so far each maker has put another $500,000 into the program.