An Evaluation of Vehicle Steering Arrangement with Dexterity Measures of Virtual Human

Four ellipsoid-type dexterity analyses, which have been popular in the field of robotics, were applied to evaluate vehicle driver's steering arrangement. The Human was modeled as three-dimensional rigid bodies. Their length and inertia properties were based on anthropometric data. The newly defined measures were introduced as an effective radius of each ellipsoid along the steering direction, divided by a degree of agreement between the principal axes of the ellipsoid and those of the steering wheel. Sensitivity analyses were done with regard to the steering wheel location in a vertical plane and inclination, and seat back angle. Measures from dynamic dexterity ellipsoids, in particular the measure based on kinetic energy, nearly correspond to the traditional region of steering wheel arrangement from subjective judgement. Optimum inclination angle depending on seat back angle was calculated for three different sizes of drivers with the measures from dynamic dexterity ellipsoids.