Development of Biomechanical Manikins for Measuring Seat Comfort

A manikin that can simulate the final stable posture of a seated human being has been developed in order to evaluate seat comfort quantitatively and to analyze the biomechanical characteristics of seats.

J-SAE 3DM, a manikin with the dimensions of a Japanese 50th percentile person made to imitate the SAE three-dimensional manikin standardized in SAE J826 was employed as the original; three additional joints were installed on its back pan to make it flexible.

In this paper, the authors' view of seat comfort, on which their study was based, is summarized. Then the progress of development and various experimental results showing the usability of the final model are outlined.