Numerical assessment of low-speed impacts on ballistic gelatin on a spring stage as a human bio-simulant

Bio-simulants and finite element (FE) models have been used to investigate internal injuries caused by external impacts. As the collaboration between humans and industrial robots increases, it is important to understand the expected injuries or damage caused by collaborative robots. In this paper, FE models of the human chest were built to investigate injuries caused by low-speed non-penetrating blunt impacts from collaborative robots. The FE models were validated by comparing them with experimental results. The validated FE models were then used to calculate the maximum force and deformation that would be experienced by the human chest under different impact conditions. The results of the FE analysis were compared with relevant real human test studies.