Ergonomic Puppet

The Ergonomic Puppet is a configurable digital manikin designed to assess posture ergonomics. It uses the same postural rig as INTERACT’s Body Tracking Player, enabling a VR user (with headset, controllers, or hand tracking) to position the manikin in a wide range of scenarios (sitting, driving, assembly, and more). A real-time RULA-based evaluation system computes and displays ergonomic scores during manipulation, allowing rapid analysis of workstation design and task feasibility without requiring full motion‑capture equipment.

Add a puppet to your scene

While in Editor mode, to add a puppet to your scene:

1. Use the top menu INTERACT > Ergonomics > Add Ergo Puppet.
2. You can pre-position the ErgoPuppet in your scene. Set up collisions if needed.
3. Start the simulation to interact with the Puppet.

Customize Puppet avatar

Apply your company branding in INTERACT > Settings (see Logo and colors).

Collisions

To set collisions between the Puppet and its environment, select the ErgoPuppet game object and assign a Collision Group in the Puppet Manikin Manager component.

Puppet Ergonomics Evaluation

Ergo Puppet integrates with the PuppetCotationPanel GameObject. The Puppet Ergonomics Evaluation overlay appears in the top-right corner of the Game view. This panel delivers real-time feedback on the puppet’s posture as RULA scores are computed continuously and displayed through a color-coded body silhouette and score boxes. Each body segment is highlighted according to its evaluated posture and the resulting RULA assessment.

Add a puppet in VR

While in VR, open VR Menu and click on the Puppet button to spawn a Puppet Manikin in the scene.

Multiple puppets

You can add up to two puppets in your scene. Once two puppets are present, the PUPPET button is automatically disabled.

Move and manipulate the puppet in VR

Requires Unity Play mode with a VR Player using a headset and controllers or hand tracking.

The puppet is moved with the laser-grab tool via the Platform and manipulated directly by grabbing its articulation targets.

Around the puppet, you will find various helpers to set up the puppet:

• Using the laser-grab tool,
  • A Plateform for global movement and rotation.
  • A grey look-at sphere to adjust the gaze direction.
  • A green waist box target for full-body manipulation.
• Using the grab tool,
  • Eight green articulation sphere targets to manipulate body parts.
  • A green waist box target to manipulate the upper body.

Use VR Menu to switch between the laser-grab tool and the default grab tools.

Move the puppet

Use the Platform under the puppet with the laser to move and orient the puppet manikin.

• Select the inner disc to move the Platform, which snaps to surfaces.

• Select the outer ring, to orient the puppet manikin by rotating your wrist.

Manipulate body parts

In VR, use your virtual hands to manipulate individual puppet body parts. in VR, hand-grab the articulation sphere targets (the green spheres). From there, you can move and rotate them, and this will also influence the extremity involved.

The waist box target behaves slightly differently. See waist manipulation below.

Laser manipulation

While articulation sphere targets can technically be selected with the laser-grab tool, this interaction mode is not optimized for precise manipulation. For accurate joint adjustment, use direct hand-grab interaction.

Waist manipulation

The Waist box target behaves a bit differently from the other targets.

• Grabbing the waist with your hands anchors the knees to the world. This allows controlled torso bending and seated postures.

• Manipulating the waist with the laser‑grab tool moves all joints as a single unit. This enables full-body repositioning, such as lifting, lowering, or laying the puppet flat.

Change the puppet gaze direction

To change the direction in which the puppet is looking, Select and move the grey staring sphere target.

Reset puppet in VR

If a puppet is already present in your scene, the Puppet button in the VR Menu changes to Reset Puppet who allows to reset the puppet. During reset, the puppet is repositioned near the origin of your scene, its postures are reset (temporary T-pose), and it is returned to its default Relax pose.

Collision group will be lost

If you reset a puppet, its collision group is reset too.