An evaluation of vehicle driver´s steering comfort with dexterity measures of 3-dimensional human model

In this paper, three ellipsoid-type dexterity analyses and a stochastic-type measure, which have been popular in the field of robotics, were applied to evaluate vehicle driver´s steering comfort. Humans are modeled as three-dimensional jointed rigid bodies. Those length and inertia properties were based on anthropometric data. The newly defined measures have been induced as an effective radius of each ellipsoid that is tangential to the steering wheel. Seat belt and seat back constraints were considered with the null-space mapping method. Using an acceleration deviation ellipsoid, a stochastic dynamic manipulability measure can consider task-oriented dexterity. Deviation values were determined by long time driving data in a driving simulator environment. Sensitivity analyses were calculated with regard to steering wheel location in a vertical plane and tilt and seat back angle. Measures considering inertial properties correspond well to the traditional region of steering wheel arrangement from subjective judgement. Maximizing stochastic-type measures, the optimum steering location was calculated for different physical sized drivers. The results indicate that these measures are able to describe drivers´ steering comfort in more detail than the traditional rectangular region