Human Dummy System for Evaluating Comfort of Seat

• US 20090151444A1
• Filed: 12/10/2008
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group), Kia Motors Corporation (Kia Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company (Hyundai Motor Group), Kia Motors Corporation (Kia Corp.)
• Inventors: Hwang, Su Hwan, Lee, Kwang Noh, Kim, Seok Hwan
• Granted Patent: US 7,891,259 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/172
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 99/001 Testing of furniture, e.g. seats or mattresses

Abstract

A human dummy system for evaluating the comfort of a seat comfort includes sensor units and a data processing unit. The sensor units are attached to the relevant joints of a human dummy, and detect the angles of the relevant joints. The data processing unit calculates information about relative locations of adjacent joints on the basis of the information about the angles of the relevant joints, and calculates the absolute location of a specific joint through coordinate system transformation between the information about relative locations and the joints of the human dummy.

Claims

1. A human dummy system for evaluating comfort of a seat, comprising:

sensor units attached to respective joints of a human dummy and configured to detect angles of the respective joints; and

a data processing unit configured to determine relative locations of respective joints on a basis of angles of adjacent joints and distances therebetween, and determine an absolute location of a specific joint from a reference location by using the relative locations of the respective joints and coordinate system transformation between the respective joints of the human dummy.

2. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the distances between the adjacent joints are stored in the date processing unit in advance.

3. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the coordinate system transformation is performed through homogeneous transformation matrix operations using one or more of a translation matrix and a rotation matrix.

4. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the reference location is an ankle joint.

5. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the reference location is a pelvis.

6. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 5, wherein the reference location is a center between two hip joints.

7. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the relative locations of the respective joints are compensated by uniformly allocating error among coordinate points of respective joints.

8. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 7, wherein the error is determined by comparing coordinate values of the absolute locations of the target joint based on the reference location, the absolute locations acquired along at least two different routes connecting the reference location and the target joint in common.

9. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 8, wherein the allocated error is determined by dividing difference in the coordinate values of absolute locations of the target joint in each route by number of coordinate points in one route.

10. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 9, wherein one of the routes directly connects the reference location and the target joint.

11. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 10, wherein the one route for dividing the difference in the coordinate values of the absolute locations of the target joint in each route is not the one route directly connecting the reference location and the target joint.

12. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising one or more of:

a display unit for displaying the relative locations of the respective joints transmitted to the data processing unit;

a data communication unit for converting the relative locations of the respective joints transmitted by the data processing unit into information in a communication data format, and sending the resulting information; and

a data storage unit for recording the information transmitted by the data communication unit on a predetermined storage medium.

13. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 12, wherein the data communication unit and the data storage unit communicate with each other via a Bluetooth or RC-232C method.

14. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 12, wherein the data communication unit receives data stored in the data storage unit, converts the data into data in a predetermined form, and transmits the resulting data to the data processing unit.

15. The human dummy system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the sensor units are potentiometers for converting the angles into electric resistance.