An analysis of human comfort when entering and exiting the rear seat of an automobile

This paper describes a study of human motion and human comfort when entering and exiting the rear seat of an automobile. A simulator was used to test several possible door frame configurations, and various positions of the front and rear seats. Thirty-six human subjects were asked to enter and exit the simulator five times for each configuration and to answer a subjective questionnaire, The motion performed by each test subject was recorded by means of a VHS recorder and an ELITE motion measurement system, A statistical analysis was performed on the data from the questionnaires and comfort rankings were produced for the various configurations, The most influential design parameters were identified and iso-comfort surfaces were defined and fitted which provided a simple means of quantifying the effect of one of the main parameters. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.