Biomechanical Design and Evaluation of Truck Seats

The design and evaluation of seating has been limited by the available technologies to measure the mechanical interaction between a seat and its user. For many years, representation of the seated torso has been by two standardized measurement manikins from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI)¹ for office seating and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)² for vehicle seating. Most office and automotive seat backs recline about a single point; this motion can be measured with the available manikins. However, both the ANSI and the SAE manikins do not represent the natural anatomical movements of the upper torso (thorax) relative to the lower torso (pelvis) that occur with spinal articulation.

Current tools that are useful for seat design and evaluation include the biomechanical models^3,4 and experimental test methods^{5, 6,7} that have been developed at Michigan State University's (MSU) Biomechanical Design Research Laboratory (BDRL). These models and methods have been used in the automotive and office industries and have potential to be used in the truck and bus industries.