A Multivariate Evaluation Method for Representative Human Model Generation Methods: Application to Grid Method

Abstract

A small number of representative human models (RHMs) are used for efficient product design and evaluation in digital environments; however, the multivariate performance evaluation on existing RHM generation methods has not been made. The present study developed a multivariate accommodation evaluation method, and then applied the proposed method to evaluation of the grid method which generates RHMs at scattered grids over the population distribution. The measure multivariate accommodation performance quantifies the proportion of the population within representative grids formed to accommodate a designated percentage of the target population. Twelve RHMs were generated by the grid method to accommodate 95% of the 1988 US Army anthropometric database and it was found that the accommodation performance of the RHMs decreased dramatically as the number of anthropometric dimensions increased (accommodation percentage = 99% for a one dimension and 10% for 10 dimensions). Multiple regression analysis identified that three factors (overlap area of representative grids, adjusted R2 between key dimensions and other body dimensions, and sum of body size ranges) significantly affect the accommodation percentage of the grid method. The proposed evaluation method is applicable for evaluation of other RHM generation methods.