Activity and Eye Movement Analysis as Basis of Vehicle Cabin Design

Abstract

An inventory of different methods was developed over the last couple years to evaluate the ergonomic quality of different drivers workplaces. The cockpit of short-haul buses, long-haul buses, streetcars and harvesting machinery were evaluated. Based on this analysis criteria for the re-design could be developed. E.g. the design of the standard German short-haul buses is based on the results of such an analysis. In a first step, the physical layout of the cabin is recorded and evaluated. The analysis of the (static) posture of a large number of different subjects in a number of typical positions gives valuable information about the anthropometric design of the workplace. It is complemented by an analysis of the posture during the real task with a smaller number of subjects. In addition, the activities and the eye movements of the subjects during the real task are recorded and analyzed and used as input for the re-design of the cabins.