Simulated Effect of Driver and Vehicle Interaction on Vehicle Interior Layout

Digital human modeling is an essential tool to reduce cost and to save time in a design process where humans take the part of users of the design. Considering this phenomenon for a vehicle interior, the importance of the seat track location and adjustment ranges become important. This paper presents the effect of driver and vehicle interaction on vehicle interior layout based on simulation approach. This simulation method includes two optimizations. The first optimization problem is the physics-based seated posture prediction. In order to represent physical drivers, 4,500 virtual drivers are generated based on an anthropometric database-ANSUR. Interaction forces between the digital human and pedal, seat, ground, and steering wheel are incorporated in the physics-based posture prediction. Three different pedal reaction moments (0, 20, and 40 N m) are implemented into the formulation to examine the effect of pedal reaction moment on driver seat location and adjustment ranges. To study the effect of shear forces, the physics-based posture prediction is compared to kinematics-based posture prediction. After posture predictions are completed, individuals' preferred seat locations are used in a second optimization problem to predict the seat track location and adjustment ranges. For a specific vehicle with 20 N m pedal reaction moment, adjustment ranges are predicted as 223 mm and 82 mm in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. Also, it was shown that shear force due to the interaction between the driver and the seat pan and the pedal reaction moment are both influential to the seat track location and adjustment ranges. Relevance to industry: The simulation model presented in this paper is useful in vehicle and seat design and can be easily used for virtual design assessment in vehicle design.