Apparatus and methods for virtual accommodation

• US 20030018454A1
• Filed: 07/18/2001
• Published: 01/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co., Tennessee State University (University and Community College System Tennessee State)
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co., Tennessee State University (University and Community College System Tennessee State)
• Inventors: Winkler, Edward R., Onyebueke, Landon C.
• Granted Patent: US 6,947,875 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design

Abstract

A system for developing a design of an environment such as an aircraft cockpit. A processor generates body models describing a percentage of a body population potentially to be accommodated by the environment. A processor-user interface displays an environment design relative to the body models. The interface accepts user changes to the design and the body models. The processor modifies the design and the body models in accordance with user changes. The system allows a designer of an airplane cockpit to rapidly visualize, analyze and assess its accommodation of a desired percentage of pilots.

Claims

1. A system for developing a design of an environment for accommodating at least one body such as a human body, said system comprising:

a processor configured to generate a plurality of body models describing a percentage of a population of bodies potentially to be accommodated by the environment design; and

a processor-user interface, in which an environment design is graphically displayed relative to at least one of the body models, the interface further configured to accept from a user changes to the environment design and the body models, the processor further configured to modify the design and the body models in accordance with the user changes.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to use a plurality of body models to determine a percentage of the population of bodies potentially to be accommodated by the environment design.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a body dimension database comprising dimensions of the population of bodies potentially to be accommodated by the environment, the processor configured to generate the body models using the database body dimensions.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the processor is configured to determine a percentage of the population of bodies potentially to be accommodated by the environment design using principal component analysis on the database body dimensions, and the processor-user interface is further configured to display a plurality of principal components relative to the body models.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the processor-user interface is further configured to accept a selection by a user of a number of principal components to be used in the principal component analysis.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the processor-user interface is further configured to accept a selection by a user of boundary conditions to be applied in the principal component analysis.

7. The system of claim 4 wherein the processor is further configured to determine a total variance covered by the principal components, and the processor-user interface is further configured to display a sensitivity plot of weights of the database body dimensions contributing to the principal components.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to determine whether at least one of the plurality of body models is accommodated by the environment design, and the processor-user interface is further configured to display a warning when the environment design does not accommodate the at least one body model.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor-user interface is further configured to display dimensions of the body models and to accept from the user changes to the model dimensions.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor-user interface is further configured to display dimensions of the environment design and to accept from the user changes to the design dimensions.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor-user interface is further configured to display the environment design and at least one of the body models in three spatial dimensions.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor-user interface is further configured to display the environment design and at least one of the body models in animation.

14. The combination of claim 13 wherein the user-processor interface is further configured to display a percentage of the population that would be accommodated by a given design.

15. The combination of claim 13 wherein the processor is configured to analyze body dimensions of the population using principal component analysis, and wherein the interface is configured to display at least one plot of analysis results.

16. The combination of claim 15 wherein the plot displays the population body dimensions expressed as principal components.

17. The combination of claim 16 wherein the plot describes weights of the body dimensions contributing to the principal components.

18. The combination of claim 17 wherein the user-processor interface is further configured to allow the user to modify dimensions of at least one of the design and the body models based on the weights.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of using the body models to determine a percentage of the bodies that would be accommodated by an environment design.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising the step of changing the percentage by altering at least one of the design and the body models.

22. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of modifying the body models for accommodation by an environment design.

23. The method of claim 19 further comprising the step of modifying at least one of the design and the body models based on principal component analysis of the dimensions of the plurality of bodies.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the step of modifying at least one of the design and the body models comprises evaluating dimensions based on the dimension weights in the principal component analysis.

13. In combination with a processor, a user-processor interface for designing an environment for accommodating at least one human body, the interface comprising:

a display for displaying an environment design relative to least one of a plurality of body models describing a percentage of a population of bodies potentially to be accommodated by the environment design;

the user-processor interface being operable to modify dimensions of the environment design based on analysis of dimensions of the body models and to modify dimensions of the body models based on dimensions of the environment design.

19. A method for developing a design of an environment for accommodating at least one human body, said method comprising the steps of:

selecting a set of body models based on dimensions of a plurality of bodies potentially to be accommodated by the environment;

determining whether an environment design accommodates a desired percentage of the bodies potentially to be accommodated by the environment, said step comprising displaying the body models relative to the environment design; and

modifying the design to accommodate the desired percentage,

each of said steps performed by a user interactively with a processor and using a graphical processor-user interface.