Test of a Device for a Supported Ingress/Egress in Cars

摘要

This paper presents the results of a study conducted at the Lehrstuhl für Ergonomie of the Technische Universit(a)t München on a device to support ingress and egress. Sports cars with lower seating conditions show, that difficulties concerning entering and exiting the automobiles occur among older drivers. Due to design aspects the possibilities to build sports cars with higher seats or narrow door sills are limited. In this context the idea of an ingress/egress supporting device aroused, which would help the driver with a minimized seat movement during the most difficult movement phase of ingress and egress. Therefore a real mock-up is built for repeatable and reliable testing of ingress and egress discomfort sensation of test subjects. The packaging of the mock-up is meant to represents a sports car with "variable seat kinematics". The test results show a high acceptance for the supporting system, as it clearly reduces occurring discomfort. As expected, car geometries as door sill and upper a-pillar show the main limits to the seat movements, because of possible collisions with body parts or seat structure. The result of this study shows the possibility of reducing ingress and egress discomfort in sports cars by means of a rotating and tilting seat.