An Investigation of Relational Characteristics among the Design Elements of Automobile Seat Packaging with a Triangular Method

삼각기법을 이용한 자동차 운전환경 설계요소간 관계 모델링

The three design elements of automobile occupant packaging such as pedals, steering wheel, and seat are the most important factors to design an ergonomically sound layout for improving driving comfort and performance. The aim of the study is to find out coherent characteristics of the relationships among three design elements. For this purpose, Triangular Method is suggested. We extracted properties for determining the shape, size, and location of the triangle that is composed of Accelerated Heel Point, Steering Wheel Point, and Hip Point. An experiment was conducted at a seating buck in which the design elements are freely adjustable by the subject to investigate driver's preferred arrangement of three elements. Statistical analyses revealed that there was a subtle change in the shape of triangle according to different percentiles and that the significant difference was observed only for the size of the triangle. The results will be effectively applied to design a comfortable seat packaging layout.