Modeling In-Vehicle Reaches Perturbed by Ride Motion

Vehicle operators are required to perform a variety of reaching tasks while the vehicle is in motion. The vibration transmitted from the terrain-vehicle coupling can prevent the operator from successfully completing the required task. The level to which vibration inhibits the completion of these tasks must be more clearly understood in order to effectively design controls and displays that minimize these performance decrements. The Ride Motion Simulator (RMS) at the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center (TARDEC) simulated single-axis and 6DOF ride motion, in which twelve participants were asked to perform push-button reaching tasks to eight RMS-mounted targets. In order to better ascertain the effects of dynamic ride motion on in-vehicle reaching tasks, we used a twelve-camera VICON optical motion capture system to record and UGS PLM Solutions’ Jack^™ to analyze the associated kinematic and kinetic motions. Recent studies have presented methodologies and results from motion capture studies of human reach performance under ride motion perturbation (Rider et al. 2003a, 2003b). Results of the reach data reveal the critical nature of the design and layout of controls, with respect to torso-included motions and an increase in the movement time required to successfully complete an in-vehicle task under ride motion.