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Driving posture measurement is essential for the evaluation of a driver workspace and for improved seat comfort design. This study captures the comfortable driving postures for Koreans using a handheld portable Artec L™ 3D scanner. Subjects consisted of 20 healthy individuals (10 males and 10 females) ranging in age from 20 to 40 years and grouped as three weight groups (<59 kg, 60-79 kg and >80 kg). Eighteen land markers were attached (car seat: 9 markers; subject: 9 markers). From the 3D scanned data, the angles (neck, back, headrest, seat back, wrist, elbow, knee, and ankle) and distances (head to headrest, seat height, and seat back and forth) between the land markers were extracted in the Rapidform XOR software. The body pressure distribution was measured using two pressure mats from 17 body part regions. The measured pressure data were analyzed for average pressure, contact area, and body part pressure ratio.

Seat cushions are considered as one of the important factors influence the seating comfort. In the automotive seat cushions, flexible polyurethane foams have been widely used due to the cushioning performance. Automotive seat designers are paying more attention to the improvement of seat cushion properties. This study introduces an automotive seat that uses an air-mat in the seat cushion along with polyurethane foam. The air-mat can be adjusted with its internal air pressure. The objective of this paper is to examine air-mat seat pressure level on seating comfort. Vibration experiments have been performed on the BSR simulator with random vibration. Tri-axial accelerometers were used to measure vibration at the foot and hip. All measured vibration were about the vertical direction (z-axis). The whole-body vibration exposure parameters (weighted root-mean-square (RMS), vibration dose value (VDV), transmissibility (SEAT value)) were calculated per ISO 2631-1 standard.

Seating comfort is one of the most important indicators of the performance of automotive seats. The objective and subjective evaluation of seating comfort plays an important role in the development of seating systems. Objective methods are primarily based on evaluating the influence of vibrations on the driver's seat and assessing the seat pressure ratio. The primary goal of this study was to evaluate the comfort of two car seats (sedan and compact) by comparing a subjective technique with an objective technique like body pressure ratio for a sample of 12 subjects. The results show that the pressure ratio for IT (ischial tuberosity) and L4/L5 were significantly greater for the seat of a compact car than the seat of a sedan car. The subjective comfort was significantly greater for the seat of the sedan car and females than the seat of the compact car and males, respectively.