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The group human modeling of the Lehrstuhl für Ergonomie at the Technische Universität München has the aim to develop an autonomous digital human model. On this way a general dynamic discomfort model for posture and movement shall be developed in order to predict the perceived discomfort of a human during a task (e.g. lifting of a weight). This can be used to provide suggestions for the concept of a new product. Using a discomfort model in the dynamic situation that is based on force and posture is unique and leads to a new quality, because the rate of the force or torque potential of a person can be taken into consideration. Motion prediction under load will be improved. This can help to solve current questions of automotive companies like ingress/egress. In this paper a discomfort model for an arm movement is described and generated in the context of a lifting task. It is derived from a static model and accounts for the force level of a subject.

For car manufacturers, seating comfort is becoming more and more important in distinguishing themselves from their competitors. There is a simultaneous demand for shorter development times and more comfortable seats. Comfort in automobile seats is a multi-dimensional and complex problem. Many current sophisticated measuring tools were consulted, but it is unclear on which factors one should concentrate attention when measuring comfort. The goal of this paper is to find a model in order to predict the overall seating discomfort based on body area ratings. Besides micro climate, the pressure distribution appears to be the most objective measure comprising with the clearest association with the subjective ratings. Therefore an analysis with three different test series was designed, allowing the variation of pressure on the seat surface. In parallel the subjects were asked to judge the local and the overall sensation.

A comprehensive experimental study was conducted to investigate human movements when entering a vehicle. The primary goal of this study was to understand the influence of environmental changes on entry motions selected by a driver to enter a vehicle. The adjustable hardware setup “VEMO” (Variable Entry Mockup) was used for the experiments. With VEMO it is possible to simulate different types and classes of vehicle configurations. Around 30 test persons of different anthropometry participated in the experiments. The visual measurement system VICON was used for motion capturing, motion data cleaning and biomechanical analysis. The results corroborate the theory of leading body parts (LBPs) i.e. body parts that control targeted movement of the entire body. It could be demonstrated how motion patterns of LBPs, including spatial and dynamic characteristics such as orientation and velocity, respond to modifications of the geometrical environment.