A Study on the Optimum Driving Posture for Designing Comfortable Driving Workstation

안락한 운전좌석 설계를 위한 최적 운전자세 연구

This study was conducted to collect data concerning the preferred driving postures and adopted seat adjustment levels and to grasp relationships among drivers' body sizes, postural angles, and adopted seat positions and angles. Also optimum driving posture and seat adjustment level estimation models were constructed. An experiment was conducted to investigate observed optimum driving posture, and seat adjustment level. Thirty-six subjects (male=20, female=16) was selected to include a wide range of percentiles in the dimensions important for automotive driving workstation design and to be representative of the automotive driving population in Korea. New guidelines and estimation models for optimum postural comfort were developed. There were significant differences between male and female in postural angles but not in seat adjustment levels. Taller subjects preferred a more open and reclined posture. Estimation models enable us to estimate the quantitative optimum driving posture and seat adjustment level with some drivers' physical dimensions.