Workflow Automation for Simulations of Optical and RF Exposures

Devices that produce high-power radio frequency and optical radiation can be hazardous to operate and can lead to overexposures in humans. Because human experiments are undesirable, analysts use software chains to predict exposures: these range from simulations of the devices to propagation of the electromagnetic waves through the environment and finally to simulations of effects in human tissue. Galaxy, a government-owned workflow management and remote computing tool suite was designed to automate simulation tool chains and has been previously applied to chains that include the same wave propagation tools that are used for hazard modeling. However, expanding the Galaxy tool suite into novel regimes and creating the required software modules demands deep expertise in the tool itself. To ease this process, we will develop new usability features for Galaxy, including user-defined software modules that can be shared and improved by groups of analysts who have no programming experience. We will demonstrate these features on prototypical workflows for hazard assessments. Since this process inevitably will include the parameterization of posing of human models, we will furthermore integrate our existing posing technologies into the state-of-the-art tools that are used for optical exposure modeling in the field.