Search Results

The evaluation of perceived comfort inside a car during the early stages of the design process is still an open issue. Modern technologies like CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) and DHM (Digital Human Modeling) already offer several tools for a preventive evaluation of ergonomic parameters for car drivers using detailed CAD (Computer Aided Design) models of car interiors and by a MBS (multi-body-system) solver for evaluating movements and interactions. Such evaluations are, nonetheless, not sufficient because the subjectivity of comfort perception is due to factors that are very difficult to evaluate in the early stage of design. Physical prototypes are needed and these are often too expensive to be realized.

General comfort can be defined as the measure of the “level of wellbeing” perceived by humans when interacting with a working environment. The state of the art for comfort/discomfort evaluation shows the need for an objective method to evaluate both “effects on the internal body” and “perceived effects” when considering the perception of comfort. Medical studies show that each joint has its own natural resting posture. In this posture, our muscles are completely relaxed or at minimum levels of strain. The body's geometrical configuration corresponds to the natural resting position of arms/legs/neck etc. From this starting point, the authors experimented to develop and built postural-comfort curves for each degree of freedom (DOF) of upper-limb joints. These curves are regular, and do not show any kind of discontinuity. Software (CA-Man®) was developed to analyze different postures and calculate a postural comfort index for the entire upper body.

General comfort may be defined as the “level of well-being” perceived by humans in a working environment. The state-of-the-art about evaluation of comfort/discomfort shows the need for an objective method to evaluate the “effect in the internal body” and “perceived effects” in main systems of comfort perception. In the early phases of automotive design, the seating and dashboard command can be virtually prototyped, and, using Digital Human Modeling (DHM) software, several kinds of interactions can me modeled to evaluate the ergonomics and comfort of designed solutions. Several studies demonstrated that DHM approaches are favorable in virtual reachability and usability tests as well as in macro-ergonomics evaluations, but they appear insufficient in terms of evaluating comfort.

Much research has been carried out in recent years to estimate perceived comfort levels for passengers in motor vehicles. This interest is in part due to the introduction of specific provisions (e.g. Law 81/08 in Italy). Another factor is the increased interest and attention of customers. These studies have concentrated in large part on driver position. However, this work describes an application of postural analysis of with results obtained via data acquired during the interaction between the passenger and the dashboard. Tests were carried out in the Virtual Reality Laboratory (VR Lab) at the University of Salerno using a physical mock-up of a passenger car seat involving a fully reconfigurable seating buck. The interior of a FIAT Grande Punto, MY 2013, was configured by setting the seating-buck parameters. Twenty participants were asked to sit in the car seat with their shoulders against the seatback. They were then asked to reach each of the dashboard buttons.