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A vehicle laboratory has been developed in which the vehicle operator's posture, pressure distribution, muscle activity, and comfort can be measured while driving on the highway. This instrumented vehicle uses video camera, pressure mats, electromyography, and questionnaires to make these measurements. There is an on-board PC486 to record the data fro later off-line analysis. These data are useful for developing design criteria for seating comfort as well as investigating the real-life position that the operator sits in the vehicle package while driving the vehicle on the highway.

The location of the pelvis in the seated automobile operator is critical for proper packaging and seat comfort design. The pelvis is the skeletal structure which contains the hip joint (H-point) and ischial tuberosity (D-point). The orientation of the pelvis largely determines the curvature in the low back which is supported by lumbar supports in the seat back. A methodology has been developed that uses onboard video and pressure measurement systems to locate the pelvis. This system has been used in a mid-sized vehicle on seated operators driving the vehicle on the highway. This paper describes the methodology and the location of the pelvis in seated automobile operators.

Human accommodation, has undergone rapid changes in the past few years which are outdistancing current concepts, data and design tools. This paper examines the basis of current problems in the application of these tools to the design of safe and comfortable seats. Examples of the types of new data needed are given and the discussion proposes new paths to solve current problems.

Virtual drivers in math models can design and evaluate the seating package in all classes of vehicles. With the driver's seated geometry constrained by vision and reach to the steering wheel and pedal, seat design is optimized to support all drivers in three back postures to operate the vehicle. The position of each virtual driver model in the seat is calculated from a biomechanical model of seated load distribution with each model represented by functionally correct positions of pelvis and spine as well as the deflected shape of the seated body in a vehicle seat. This geometry is optimized to design or evaluate seats by changing boundary conditions of select variables and functions in the math tool. The math comfort score is calculated from the physical interface between the virtual drivers and the seating package. The weighted sum of scores for all virtual drivers is the population comfort score for the vehicle seating package.