RAMSIS Based Car Interior Ergonomics Packaging & Analysis

Automotive body package is one of the most important work in concept design phase. It is an entire processed design work in the concept product phase.The main idea in car interior package is"around the human being", the target is to make large room, comfort and good vision. It must achieve three harmonys around passenger, according to the basic content -body dimension, physiological configure characteristic and vision characteristic when begin package design. To the driver, in his comfortable posture, the package for body must be :1. harmonious arrangement for control parts ,to confirm the drive position2. harmonious room dimension ,to use the room efficiently3. harmonious between passenger and car ,to make the best visionIn China, many productors use the old way to for passenger car design. Although some company have used CAD as hard ware, but most CAD softwares are not be used truely and efficiency. So a lot of manpower and material resources are wasted in car product trade. With the fast development in car production, software updating, cooperating all over the world and the hardworking of Chinese researcher, more and more ergonomics are applied appropriately. But it is not absolute about the regulation and description of ergonomics, whatever it is how detailed. Because if there is no limit for body room,it is no problem. But total dimensions must be under control. It is ambivalent to make large room for driver and passenger and feel comfortable. When they are conflicted, we must consider how to meet their requirements at the same time by adjusting other conditions. If it is impossible to meet their requirements at the same time , we must learn to choose the more important one. About the application of manikin for example, should we use different percentage manikins or same ones in different analysis course of comfort feeling. Which kind of manikin is better if we don't use the same one? It depends on the experience that we accumulated during long time work and the right decision by analysis. RAMSIS has been the actual standard for ergonomics design in car product. It has been used by more than 70% passenger car manufacturer. But there little papers have been issued about how to use RAMSIS in car design. In this paper, we make the research in car interior package by RAMSIS manikin software. Using the Chinese manikin to design a new cockpit for Chinese passengers. We try to make more room, more comfort feeling for passengers and more competitive in market. The main content of this paper:1. The benefits and Advantages of RAMSIS1) Posture Assessment based probabilityRAMSIS make it possible that the user concept the task by himself to calculate body posture. He can use the task editor of RAMSIS to define such task as"put right hand on gear lever","put left foot on clutch pedal","look at the cluster"etc. Then, RAMSIS can calculate automaticly which posture should be use most possible to execute the task in this geometry circumstance by its optimize arithmetic. It is based upon driver experiments and user can add the data.2) Bodybuilder moduleThere are different body dimensions for different production and aim user groups. RAMSIS Bodybuilder module can build different manikins and Anthropometric Editors. When these dimensions are changed, other body dimensions are changed according with the connections which are setting in database. The wrong body dimensions are prevented.3) 8 international body dimension databases include Chinese body.One of the characteristics of RAMSIS is the newest Chinese body dimension database. And Germany, USA, Canada, France, South America Japan, Korea and Mexico database.4) Structural FeaturesModular model structure;Wireframe, shaded and surface representation; Kinematically correct joint motion。2. passenger car interior package1) Good arrangements for buttons2) The way to selected seat position;3) passenger car interior packaging toolsEyellipse: The Eyellipse contours were developed by the statistical analysis of photogrammetric data of driver eye locations and represent a population mix, primarily of United States licensed drivers, with a male-to–female ratio of one-to-one. This recommended practice is based on an original study, involving drivers with a straight-ahead viewing task without head turning.Head contour: The head position contours were developed using data gathered from eye position studies and anthropometric data of the head. Mean top of head (including hair) and back of head (including hair) were determined relative to the eye from these studies and averaged. The mean front and side of head was determined relative to the eye from anthropometric data this information was used to develop a mean head profile in side and rear view referenced to the eye.Hand reach envelop: The description of driver hand control reach envelopes was developed using data acquired from test subjects performing reach tasks in test fixtures simulating a range of actual vehicle configurations. The test subjects included equal numbers of men and women selected to represent the driving population on the basis of stature and age, and were tested both with and without upper torso three-point restraint. This recommended practice describes boundaries of hand control locations that can be reached by desired proportions of different driver populations in passenger cars.4) Description of the way to use regulations Driver vision:Forward visibility for drivers and obstruction angles of A pillar according to GB11562-94《Motor vehicles– Forward visibility for drivers requirements and measurement methods》visual field of rear view mirror:location of rear-viewing mirrors or systems design and visual field of rear view mirror according to GB15084-94《Motor vehicles-Rear view mirrors requirements of performance and installation》anchorages area for seat belt:up and down of seatbelt anchorages field according to GB 14167-93《Motor vehicles-Safety belt anchorages》。3. Application course of RAMSIS in passenger car interior package1) Manikin choice:choose different percentage manikin according to verify itemExample : room for head need 99 percentage man ;room for driver need 5 percentage woman2) Posture model:set the comfortable Posture when manikin in the seat and check the Seat Track Travel3) Posture Assessment:comfort Feeling for driver: compare the result of analysis and choose the best. armrest:Comfort Feeling analysis and room for operating .4) roominess:shoulder,head,leg roominess analysis5) reachability:Hand reachability:for the evaluation of object arrangements in a design geometry.Foot reachability: for the evaluation of pedals Others: rear-view mirror operation. glove box open.6) vision: Forward vision, visible area for cluster ,vision field for rearview mirrors7) Seat Belt Calculation:Analyzes the routing of a chest or lap belt over the manikin's body between two geometry points representing a buckle and an attachment point calculate the length of seat beltDuring the research, I learned more knowledge about ergonomics and the way to use manikin software, accumulated some experience for passenger car design. Some result have been used actually, and some issues will be used for reference.