Undergraduate and graduate engineering and industrial design students will gain an understanding of the work of an ergonomics engineer and the complex coordination and teamwork of many professionals in the automotive product development process. Lyman Forbes, Head of Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, spent hours with me discussing various approaches and methods of conducting research studies on various crash avoidance research questions related to the development of motor vehicle safety. . standards. Bob Himes of the Advanced Vehicle Engineering staff helped integrate ergonomics and vehicle packaging as a vehicle attribute into the vehicle development process.
Roger Schulze, director of the Institute for Advanced Vehicle Systems, got me interested in working on a number of interdisciplinary programs in vehicle design. Over the past 40-plus years, I have also been fortunate to meet and discuss many automotive design issues with members of many committees of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc., the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, the Transportation Research Board, and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Association. He was head of Consumer Ergonomics Strategy and Technology in the Corporate Quality Office and head of Human Factors Engineering and Ergonomics in Corporate Design of Ford Motor Company, where he was responsible for ergonomics in the design of cars and trucks. Products.
He has served on a number of committees of the Society of Automotive Engineers Inc., Vehicle Manufacturers Association, Human Factors Society and Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. He is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Society of Automotive Engineers Inc., and Alpha Pi Mu.
Part I
Power-Window Location
The picture on the left shows the power light switches on the center console, while the picture on the right shows the power window switches grouped and located on the driver's door. When drivers in an evaluation study were asked to drive vehicles with the above two power window switch configurations and were asked to operate the switches at different times while driving, they said that the switch configuration located on the driver's door was more convenient to use because the window switches "belong to the door" (due to their attachment) and they were placed higher (required only about 20 to 25 degrees of movement below the eyes to see them from the forward line of sight ) in comparison with.
Annoying Reflections
In some pick-up trucks, drivers can see the reflections of the backlit instrument panel when the driver uses his interior mirror to view the rear field. Therefore, the ergonomics engineer must perform a reflection analysis to ensure that no illuminated components should cause annoying reflections in the driver's field of vision (see Chapter 6 for field of vision evaluations).
Hard-to-Read Labels and Difficult-to-Operate Radio
Controls, displays and interior layouts 101. b) Illuminated instrument panel reflections in the rear light (rear window behind the driver) of trucks: On some trucks, drivers can see the illuminated instrument panel reflections in the rear light when the driver uses his interior mirror to view last field.
Center Speedometer and Low Radio Location
Door Trim Panel Layout
The ambinocular field is the sum of the fields obtained from the left and right eyes (L + R). This means the locations of the three mirrors, their dimensions, the vehicle's greenhouse (pillars and window openings), and that of the driver. The figure shows a top view of the driver and the horizontal fields of the left (L) and right (R) eyes.
Obstruction of the road by the steering wheel (upper part of the rim) and the instrument panel (or instrument panel, causing a reduced downward angle [A61-1]). Cannot see any part of the hood (no view of the front of the hood). Point R represents the right eye (note that it is on the right eye ellipse and closest to the cross-section of the A-pillar), and point P represents the driver's neck hinge.
From the right eye (Rt) a line of sight is drawn, tangent to the right side of the cross-section of the column. The procedure for determining the mirror field of view is covered in a later section (see Figure 6.15). The lower edge of the mirror must be at least 20 mm above the 95th percentile of the driver's eye level.
The mirror must be located outside the head swing area (during a frontal collision) of the vehicle. Future lights can also be used to create large displays on the back of the vehicle. The figure shows that the sight distance of pedestrian targets decreased as the driver aged.
The space between the steering wheel and the stomach (between the bottom of the steering wheel and the driver's stomach) is insufficient. The door does not open far enough (i.e. the space between the inner door trim of the opened door and the body side is insufficient). The front of the B-pillar (roof pillar between the front side window and the rear side window) is too far forward.
Researchers attributed this to the sedan's low rocker arm and low seat height. Locating the engine oil dipstick (see Figure 9.3 for the dipstick's color-coded handle).
