Estimations of human hip joint center locations in automotive seats: A comparison between experimental data and a prediction model.

摘要

The present study compares experimental data to a prediction model for human hip joint center (HJC) locations in automotive seats. In phase I of the three phase study, seat pan stiffnesses for six different seats were tested using an industry standard manikin and video based motion measurement techniques. For phase II of the study, three of the six seats tested in phase I were selected to represent a range of seat pan stiffnesses varying from soft to stiff. Fifteen male subjects from three anthropometric categories were seated in all three seats and their positional data were recorded. These data were then used to compute the location their HJC locations. In phase III, a prediction of the HJC locations for all test cases in the same three seats was obtained using mathematical modeling techniques developed in previous studies by Radcliffe [6], and Bush and Macklem [3]. Finally the results between the predicted and measured HJC locations were compared. For this comparison two different approaches were used for the computation of the HJC producing slightly different locations. The prediction model successfully predicted the HJC deflections of two of the three subject groups. For the third group a prediction curve was not necessary as it was located using the industry standard manikin.