Abstract
Main causes for discomfort experienced by vehicle drivers during driving were investigated using a rigid-body model originally developed in the AnyBody Modeling System [. The interactions between the human body and the car-seat in various combinations of seat-pan/backrest inclinations and the effect of pedal spring stiffness were analyzed using an inverse dynamics approach. To deal with the muscle redundancy problem, (i.e. the problem with the human-body containing more muscles than necessary to drive its degrees of freedom) a minimum-fatigue criterion [ was utilized. The results show that various seat adjustments (e.g., seat-pan and backrest inclinations) and the pedal spring stiffness have complex influences on the muscle activation and spinal joint forces of the human body. From the results, an optimal adjustment for the car-seat is proposed, i.e. the backrest inclination is 10° and the seat-pan inclination is between 0o to 5 o. This study can in general capture the overall interactions between human body and environment (i.e. the maximum muscle activity and spine forces), which is thought to be the factors of driving fatigue.
Highlights
The use of computer models of humans and seats for analyzing their interactions can speed up and economize the process of development and introduction of new, more comfortable car-seats
To address some of the limitations of the frequently cited analyses, which are mostly based on the measurements of the distribution of human/seat contact pressure over the contact area, seated-human and car-seat interactions associated with typical sitting postures of the vehicle driver are analyzed using an inverse dynamic approach
The AnyBody Modeling System [1] developed at Aalborg University and used in the present work is a musculoskeletal modeling and simulation program; described in detail by Damsgaard et al [6]
Summary
The use of computer models of humans and seats for analyzing their interactions can speed up and economize the process of development and introduction of new, more comfortable car-seats. In earlier stages of seat designing process, new designs can be tested for its degree of comfort by carrying out computer simulations of the human interactions with the seat. To address some of the limitations of the frequently cited analyses, which are mostly based on the measurements of the distribution of human/seat contact pressure over the contact area (example [3] to [5]), seated-human and car-seat interactions associated with typical sitting postures of the vehicle driver are analyzed using an inverse dynamic approach. A musculoskeletal simulator, namely the Anybody Modeling System [1] and its associated public-domain library of body models are being used and further developed to examine the influence of different car seat adjustments and the accelerator pedal’s spring stiffness on muscular activity and spinal joint forces during the act of driving
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