Spine modelling and "safe to use" equipment design

Computer human modelling has for sometime been developed and used but even the most sophisticated commercially available human modelling packages do not have an effective spine model. Although some packages have a geometric representation of the spine, they have no analytic or design application functionality. On the other hand back pain and back injuries are well-known to be a major problem and lead to substantial costs to manufacturing industry through enforced absenteeism. The main objective is to provide an answer to the need for a design tool which can consider the range of postures and predict the loads that will be imposed on the spine.