METHOD FOR IMPROVING ERGONOMICS OF A VEHICLE COCKPIT

• US 20160292352A1
• Filed: 02/09/2016
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/02/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: SENDHOFF, Bernhard
• Granted Patent: US 10,460,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/50 Instruments characterised by their means of attachment to or integration in the vehicle B60K35/231 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/65 Instruments specially adapted for specific vehicle types or users, e.g. for left- or right-hand drive
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/654 the user being the driver
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/90 Calibration of instruments, e.g. setting initial or reference parameters; Testing of instruments, e.g. detecting malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 37/00 Dashboards as road-vehicle superstructure sub-units B62D25/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/15 Vehicle, aircraft or watercraft design
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for improving ergonomics of a vehicle cockpit. Information defining an initial cockpit configuration, and information on a cockpit user'"'"'s shape and information of a seat and steering wheel position which the user typically uses while driving, are obtained. This information is fed into a bio-mechanical simulation which carries out the simulation based upon the information defining the initial cockpit configuration, the user'"'"'s shape and the user'"'"'s seat and steering means position. An ergonomic quality criteria are calculated for reaching movements during driving. Based upon the simulation result which is the quality criteria, the cockpit configuration is changed. The bio-mechanical simulation and the changing of the cockpit configuration in the optimization process is then repeated until a predetermined stop condition is fulfilled. The cockpit configuration which is achieved at that point in time is output as final cockpit-configuration.

Claims

1. Method for improving ergonomics of a car cockpit, said method comprising:

obtaining information defining an initial cockpit configuration;

obtaining information on a cockpit-user'"'"'s shape and information of a seat and steering wheel position the user typically uses when driving;

conducting a bio-mechanical simulation on the basis of the information defining the initial cockpit configuration, information on the user'"'"'s shape and information on the seat and steering wheel position for calculating ergonomic quality criteria for reaching movements during driving;

changing the cockpit configuration in an optimization process using the simulation result;

repeating conducting the bio-mechanical simulation and changing of the cockpit configuration until a predetermined stop condition is fulfilled; and

outputting a definition for the final cockpit-configuration.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the information defining the initial cockpit configuration used in the bio-mechanical simulation is obtained from a result of an optimization process starting from a predetermined basic configuration and using feedback information from the user as an input for the optimization process.

3. Method according to claim 1, wherein information on the user'"'"'s shape is obtained by using a 3D laser scan or image based models.

4. Method according to claim 3, wherein positions of the joints are extracted from the information on the user'"'"'s shape and the simulation is conducted using the position information.

5. Method according to claim 1, wherein before the simulation is carried out a set of reaching movements is defined which have to be taken into consideration when carrying out the simulation.

6. Method according to claim 5, wherein in the set of reaching movements a plurality of types of movements is defined to each of which a weighting factor is assigned.

7. Method according to claim 1, wherein in the simulation quality criteria for physical or cognitive ergonomics are calculated.

8. Method according to claim 1, wherein in the optimization process different quality criteria are weighted and linearly combined.

9. Method according to claim 1, wherein the optimization process is a multi-objective optimization the result of which is a Pareto front.

10. Method according to claim 1, wherein the cockpit configuration being subject to the simulation is visualized to the user and feedback information regarding preference of the user is used together with the combined quality criteria in the optimization process.