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Abstract
Automobile seat design specications cannot be established without considering the comfort expectations of the target
population. This contention is supported by published literature, which suggests that ergonomics criteria, particularly those related
to physiology, do not satisfy consumer comfort. The objective of this paper is to challenge ergonomics criteria related to
anthropometry in the same way. In this context, 12 subjects, representing a broad range of body sizes, evaluated ve different
compact car seats during a short-term seating session. Portions of a reliable and valid survey were used for this purpose. The contour
and geometry characteristics of the ve seats were quantied and compared to the survey information. Discrepancies were
discovered between published anthropometric accommodation criteria and subject-preferred lumbar height, seatback width, cushion
length, and cushion width. Based on this nding, it was concluded that automobile seat comfort is a unique science. Ergonomics
criteria, while serving as the basis for this science, cannot be applied blindly for they do not ensure comfortable automobile seats.
r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Automobile seat; Comfort; Anthropometry
1. Introduction
The ergonomics of seat comfort has been studied
from a number of different perspectives (Zhang et al.,
1996; Yamazaki, 1992). As a generalization, the current
practice is to design automobile seats to satisfy
ergonomics criteria (synonymous with ergonomics
guidelines). This approach is assumed to translate into
positive consumer comfort ratings. For the purposes of
this paper, there are two categories of ergonomics
criteria. They are physiological and anthropometric.
The physiological factors, which deal with muscles,
vertebral discs, joints, and skin, have traditionally been
quantied using electromyography (Bush et al., 1995;
Lee and Ferraiuolo, 1993; Sheridan et al., 1991), disc
pressure measurement (Andersson et al., 1974), vibration transmissibility (Ebe and Grifn, 2000), pressure
distribution at the occupantseat interface (Kamijo
*Corresponding author. Automotive Systems Group, Johnson
Controls Inc., 49200 Halyard Drive, Plymouth, MI 48170, USA.Tel.:
+1-734-254-5911; fax: +1-734-254-6277.
E-mail address: michael.kolich@jci.com (M. Kolich).
0003-6870/03/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 0 0 3 - 6 8 7 0 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 1 4 2 - 4
178
2. Objective
This paper, on the basis of subjective data collected
using portions of Kolichs (1999) survey and spurred by
what the automotive seating industry has realized may
be questionable ergonomics criteria related to physiology, intends to challenge the published ergonomics
criteria related to anthropometry. The thought is that
design specications developed using anthropometric
considerations do not contribute to the production of
comfortable seats. That is, consumer expectations of
automobile seat comfort are not necessarily satised
through anthropometric accommodation.
3. Method
To obtain design data, ve 1997 model year vehicles
were obtained from rental agencies and the driver seat
contours were scanned, while in the actual vehicles,
using a portable coordinate measurement machine
(CMM), known as a FaroArm (displayed in Fig. 1).
179
180
Table 1
Compact car limits for H-Point machine angles and H-Point to heel point relationships
Seat A
Seat B
Seat C
Seat D
Seat E
Mean
STD
24
96.1
129.8
87.9
887
223
24
98
131
85
833
246
24
96
127.5
87
868
222
23.5
95
127
89.5
837
169
24
97.3
128
87.5
857
243
23.9
96.5
128.7
87.4
856.4
220.6
0.2
1.2
1.7
1.6
22.3
30.9
Fig. 2. Coordinate system used for the scanning process (adopted from Society of Automotive Engineers, 1998).
181
Table 2
Seat comfort survey (adapted from Kolich, 1999)
Item
Just right
Setback
Lumber comfort
Back lateral comfort
Uncomfortable
Uncomfortable
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
Cushion
Thigh coushin
Cushion lateral comfort
Uncomfortable
Uncomfortable
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
&
Table 3
Measured dimensions (mm) for ve automobile seats
Seat A
Seat B
Seat C
Seat D
Seat E
Mean
STD
89
451
351
428
124
508
341
484
116
514
362
481
143
507
352
445
143
462
357
414
123.0
488.4
352.6
450.4
22.4
29.5
7.8
31.3
182
Table 4
Anthropometric and demographic characteristics of subjects evaluating ve seats
Subject
Gender
Standing
height
(cm)
Percentile Body
Percentile
mass (kg)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Mean
STD
Female
Male
Male
Female
Male
Female
Female
Male
Female
Male
Female
Male
176
189
198
179
189
178
153
175
154
172
152
164
173
15
90
98
99
99
98
99
5
45
10
30
5
3
57
44
55
132
105
73
82
73
61
79
64
85
73
61
78
21
20
99
98
90
65
90
50
55
60
75
90
5
66
30
Table 5
Descriptive statistics for subjective ratings derived from survey
Seat A
Survey Item
Lumbar comfort
Back lateral comfort
Thigh comfort
Cushion lateral comfort
Mean
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.7
Seat B
STD
0.7
0.5
0.7
0.5
Mean
1.3
1.1
1.4
0.8
Seat C
STD
0.5
0.7
0.8
0.5
Mean
0.2
0.3
0.2
0.1
Seat D
STD
0.4
0.5
0.4
0.5
Mean
0.7
0.8
1.3
0.7
Seat E
STD
0.5
0.6
0.9
0.5
Mean
1.4
1.4
1.4
1.3
Overall
STD
0.7
0.5
0.5
0.7
Mean
0.8
0.9
1.0
0.7
STD
0.5
0.4
0.5
0.4
KS Z test
p value
Lumbar comfort
Back lateral comfort
Thigh comfort
Cushion lateral comfort
2.003
2.246
1.803
2.418
0.001
0.000
0.003
0.000
183
5. Conclusion
This paper has found discrepancies between published
anthropometric accommodation criteria and occupant
Table 7
One-way ANOVA for survey differences between seats
Sum of squares
df
Mean square
Sig.
Lumbar comfort
Between seats
Within seats
Total
13.500
16.833
30.333
4
55
59
3.375
0.306
11.027
0.000
Between seats
Within seats
Total
9.233
16.417
25.650
4
55
59
2.308
0.298
7.734
0.000
Thigh comfort
Between seats
Within seats
Total
14.100
25.833
39.933
4
55
59
3.525
0.470
7.505
0.000
Between seats
Within seats
Total
9.433
15.167
24.600
4
55
59
2.358
0.276
8.552
0.000
Table 8
Occupant preferences as compared to anthropometric criteria
Critical to comfort
Design Characteristic
Lumbar support
Seatback lateral support
Thigh support
Cushion lateral support
105150
>471
o305
>500
90123
X514
X362
446483
184