The next generation smart crashworthy crew seats will need to include design features that provide an enhanced level of crash safety while reducing the crew discomfort during long military missions. This paper presents the results from the Active Crash Protection Systems Enhancements II Program jointly funded by the U.S. Army Aviation Development Directorate - Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (ADD-AATD) and The Boeing Company under a Technology Investment Agreement. During this program a prototype crew seat design concept with actively-controlled seat energy absorbers was developed and integrated with an aircraft active crash protection system. The actively-controlled seat energy absorber technology developed enables automatic adjustment of the stroking load of the energy absorbers based on the occupant weight, available seat stroke, and the predicted crash impact conditions in order to provide an increased level of crash safety to the crew. The paper also includes results and recommendations from a crew seat ergonomic design study conducted to reduce crew discomfort during long missions.

Bolukbasi, Akif

Aerospace Standard 6228 Developed to Support Improved Productivity and Reduce Occupational Disease Among Powered Hand Tool Operators

2015-01-24859/15/2015

A joint US Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration (GSA) and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) project initially addressing procurement criteria for powered hand tools stimulated involvement of the SAE EG1-B Hand Tools committee and affiliated industry participants, producers of powered hand tools. It became apparent of the need to develop a standard that addresses occupational disease, productivity, life-cycle cost in the selection of Hand Power Tools. Committee efforts focused upon development of an SAE International Standard that considers productivity hand-arm vibration, noise, other safety and health factors and life-cycle costs in procurement criteria for powered hand tools. Aerospace Standard, AS 6228 Safety Requirements for Procurement, Maintenance and Use of Hand-held Powered Tools, was published in September 2014. Concurrently, a new committee, EG1-B1, Powered hand tools, productivity, Ergonomics and Safety, evolved from the EG1-B subcommittee initially formed to address this topic. The standard provides a process for semi-quantitative assessment and comparative weighting of factors including life-cycle cost, vibration, ergonomics and noise into the evaluation and procurement decision. GSA has adapted the standard in evaluation of powered hand tools and is currently making approximately 140 lower vibration/ergonomic tools available to Federal users and Aerospace Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM's), while identifying new products based on customers supply support requests. Current efforts are focused on outreach to industry and DOD; development of a technical report describing application of the AS 6228 standard and extending the processes described here to other commodities and industrial processes.

Geiger, Mark Benjamin, Ster, John Michael

Human Factors Drivers Behind Next Generation AV2020 Cockpit Display

2015-01-25379/15/2015

The efficiency of the glass cockpit paradigm has faded away with the densification of the aeronautical environment. Today's problem lies with “non-defective aircraft” monitored by “perfectly trained crews” still involved in fatal accidents. One explanation is, at crew level, that we have reached a system complexity that, while acceptable in normal conditions, is hardly compatible with human cognitive abilities in degraded conditions. The current mitigation of such risk still relies on the enforcement through intensive training of an ability to manage extremely rare (off-normal) situations. These are explained by the potential combination of failures of highly complex systems with variable environment & with variable humans. Looking back into the limits and strengths of operators, we have selected very basic knowledge on human cognitive strategies that enabled us to revisit and review our design principles to give back to pilots the ability to stay in the loop: not through the management of more & more complex systems, but by helping them doing what they do best, manage their own resources to make adequate decisions. Basic ground rules regarding human factors are recalled as key references to designers and planners. The paradigm of cognitive resources management is presented as a frame for HMI design. Cognitive strategies that are “naturally” followed by operators to spare their resources are systematically facilitated in AV2020's HMI. A form of “ecological” design is followed, preserving crew cognitive resources and favoring pilots' core abilities: i.e. decision making and application of airmanship.

Hourlier, Sylvain

Analysis and optimization of All Terrain Wheelchair

2015-01-13684/14/2015

An all-terrain wheelchair is a lever propelled wheelchair which enables an individual to drive on all terrains easily as the driving mechanism is efficient, ergonomic and fast. It also increases the reach capabilities and social boundaries of disabled. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, a comparative study of push rim wheelchair and All-terrain Wheelchair (lever propelled) has been done. In the second part, Optimization of this All-terrain Wheelchair has been done. The comparison is done on various parameters such as peak velocity, average velocity, acceleration, retardation, stroke frequency, reduction in effort, mechanical efficiency, obstacle climbing ability, turning radius, the distance travelled per stroke, Pressure cuts and burns caused during propelling the chair. Biomechanical testing is also done considering the heart rate and oxygen consumption level. This information was used to determine the energy demand, which is intrinsically connected to a wheelchair's mechanical efficiency. The optimization mainly focuses on ergonomics and efficiency of design. For this, the main emphasis was given on factors like the position of lever-drive system, configuration of wheel, seating, backrest, chassis, breaking and foot rest. this optimized design would make the chair more efficient and easy to use by enabling the person to drive, steer, and stop without even touching the wheels, thus, eliminating the risk of friction burns and protecting the wrists and shoulders from repetitive stresses. The analysis was done using commercial software ANSYS and CATIA and validation of results was conducted with the users and non-users of wheel chair.

Agarwal, Shikhar, Gautam, Saumya

Shipping Caps, Torque Caps, and Body Plugs Ergonomic Design Criteria

USCAR43 (Current)3/30/2015

This document describes the design and assembly force guidelines for conventional shipping caps, torque caps, and body plugs. All possible design and applications could not be anticipated in creating these guidelines. Where there are questions of adherence to to this document, such as use of an “off-the-shelf” design, always consult the responsible Ergonomics Department.

USCAR

Driver Ergonomics in City Buses and Coaches

2014-01-24249/30/2014

Bus and coach drivers spend considerably more time in the vehicle, compared to an average personal car user. However, when it comes to comfort levels, the personal cars, even the inexpensive hatchbacks score much higher than a standard bus. This is because the amount of ergonomic design considerations that go into designing a car's DWS (driver workspace) is much more than that of buses. To understand this lacuna, the existing standards and recommendations pertaining directly or remotely to bus driver workspace were studied. It was understood, beyond certain elementary recommendations, there were very few standards available exclusively for buses. This paper ventures to establish a set of guidelines, exclusively for designing bus and coach driver workspace. The various systems in the driver's work space and their relevance to driver's ergonomics are discussed. References are drawn from different case studies and standards to come up with recommendations and guidelines. For those aspects that were not covered in existing literature, physical evaluations were done on select Ashok Leyland buses. Besides physical evaluation, virtual ergonomic checks were also done on vehicle DMUs (Digital Mock Ups). For this purpose, manikins were modeled using Catia HBR (Human Builder 2) module and virtual evaluations were done using Catia DH2 configurator. Besides studying the driver's reachability of controls and other ergonomic aspects, emphasis was given to understand the factors influencing driver's field of vision. The consolidation of these DMU simulations, physical evaluation and case studies can be used by designers and engineers as a ready reckoner for designing driver's workplace, that is futuristic, driver friendly and ultimately safe for both the driver and other road users.

Shekar, Vignesh T., Reddy, Sreedhar

Navigation Aids Enhance Foot Control Usability

TBMG-156972/1/2013

The ever-increasing functional capabilities of emerging medical de vices have precipitated new requirements for the multi-function foot controls used to operate the equipment. These foot controls typically consist of multiple actuators, one for each required control function.

Configuring Complex Part Designs for Prosthetic Devices

TBMG-1530012/1/2012

ToughWare Prosthetics, an engineering and design group dedicated to developing innovative new assistive technologies, helps satisfy the global need for prosthetic devices that are inexpensive, designed to enable intense physical activity, labor, self-reliance, and are easy to maintain. The company, inspired by the many personal stories of hope, strength, determination, and endurance shared by amputees around the world, became aware of the great need for inexpensive assistive devices that are robust and highly functional.

Hyperpolarized Metabolic Imaging Visualizes ‘Real-Time’ Disease Progress

TBMG-146399/1/2012

Most major diseases are somehow linked to metabolic alterations. But being able to see the changes as they occur and to see if a treatment is working in ‘real time’ is now nearer at hand thanks to Hyperpolarized Metabolic Imaging. This technology has created new possibilities to non-invasively study biochemical changes in disease processes by improving the sensitivity of Magnetic Resonance by more than 20,000-fold as reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Improving Wheelchair Ergonomics

TBMG-133244/1/2012

Engineers at Empa, a Swiss interdisciplinary research and services institution, are working together with the firm «r going» to develop an ergonomic seat for electric wheelchairs that encourages the user to move around frequently. The aim is to enhance the freedom of movement of wheelchair users with a range of disabilities.

Fast, High-Precision Eye-Surgery Robot

TBMG-127611/1/2012

A smart eye-surgery robot, developed at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands, allows eye surgeons to operate with increased ease and precision on the retina and the vitreous humor of the eye. It also extends the effective period during which ophthalmologists can carry out these intricate procedures.

Ergonomic Considerations of Clutch Pedal Design for a Heavy Commercial Vehicle

2011-28-009210/6/2011

This paper gives focus on the ergonomic design of the clutch pedal. The parameters considered includes height of clutch actuation point (CAP) from cabin floor mat, lateral position from steering column and engine tunnel, size and angle of foot pad, texture design of rubber cover, maximum pedal travel packaging considering variants, force, and modulation requirements. Development of clutch pedal assembly is carried out by considering collected anthropometric data for large population range. With a set of questionnaire asked to number of drivers on their habit of keeping foot on the clutch pedal which causes fatigue and phenomena of clutch riding (results in wear of clutch disc).

Ravan, Girish, Baranwal, Shatrunjoy, Paranjape, Shekhar, Sahasrabudhe, Niteen

Tear-Based Glucose Sensor for Diabetes Monitoring

TBMG-102276/1/2011

Diabetic control typically requires daily monitoring of blood glucose levels. This involves finger pricking 2–10 times a day in order to obtain a sample for assay. Many find the finger prick tedious or painful and fall into noncompliance. Others may also dislike the assorted “paraphernalia” that must be carried around. Research into the “next-tech” for diabetes care has led many researchers to investigate tear glucose sensing as an alternative. As promising as many of these devices are, they are many years from market. Here the development of a near market tear glucose sensor is reported.

Brain Waves Measurement Based Evaluation of Mental Workload Related to Visual Information While Driving

2011-01-05934/12/2011

In order to build a useful and comfortable in-car human machine interface systems, the information presentation method should be easy to understand (low mental workload) and one should be able to respond with ease to the information presented (low response workload). We are making efforts to establish an evaluation method that would differentiate between mental workload and response workload. Here, we present the results of our trial using brain waves measurements (Eye Fixation Related Potentials). We focus on the relation between P3 latencies and drivers response workload compared to mental workload in a task involving eye movements. Previous experiments showed that P3 latency correlates strongly with the amount of information presented. The current experiment shows that P3 latencies seem to be independent to the type of response the subject is requested to perform. When asked to push a button with their right hand after detecting a Landolt ring pointing right, subjects react faster than when pressing the button with their right hand in response to a ring pointing left. The same situation is replicated whether the subjects is presented the visual stimulus in the center of their visual field, or a driving scene video is played in the center and the target stimulus is presented in a lower left position similar to in car navigation systems display position. In both situations P3 component latencies are similar. While needing to expand the experiment to a larger number of subjects, and to improve the measurements method for higher stability, this experiment combined with our previous findings show that P3 latencies seem to be a good independent measure for cognitive workload.

Gheorghe, Lucian Andrei, Sunda, Takashi

Concurrent Engineering Accelerates Surgical Instrument Solutions

TBMG-94844/1/2011

Development and production of a small, lightweight, ergonomically designed arthroscopic device powerful enough to bridge the gap between different types of surgeries usually takes at least 24 months.

Positioning Technology for Digital Displays on Mobile Medical Equipment

TBMG-89441/1/2011

As hospitals and surgical centers add more portable medical equipment, the precision and positioning of digital displays become critical to staff efficiency, comfort, and health. Dispensing quality healthcare depends on providers having easy access to the right tools and supplies. Clinicians and technicians need information at their fingertips to perform their jobs in situations where every second counts. Point-of-care portable medical equipment — for diagnostics, monitoring, and treatment — has helped speed up patient service, but it frequently comes with tradeoffs for healthcare workers. Mobile-mounted video displays and computer screens are not always well suited for sharing among workers of different body proportions, causing user frustration and, frequently, physical pain. This includes repetitive motion ailments, sore necks and backs, and eyestrain from less-than-optimal viewing angles.

Design Criteria—Driver Hand Controls Location for Passenger Cars, Multipurpose Passenger Vehicles, and Trucks (10 000 GVW and Under)

J1138_200908 (Current)

8/25/2009

The purpose of this SAE Recommended Practice is to describe design criteria pertaining to the location and labeling of hand controls, including embedded displays and controls when displayed, necessary to or frequently used during the operation of passenger cars, MPVs, and trucks 10 000 GVW and under designed for left-hand drive operation. The results of SAE human factors research have strongly influenced these recommendations, specifically in the area of driver reach, control-locating performance, and control location expectancies. Deviations from this recommended practice should be made only after careful study of the various SAE publications on these subjects. This document does not include hand-held devices such as remote controls or cellular phones.

Controls and Displays Standards Committee