Abstract
Vibration transmissibility to the human body is a function of both vehicle vibration characteristics and postures associated with the performance of movements. The majority of earlier studies investigating upper body vibration transmissibility considered only a static posture excluding dynamic limb movements (Amirouche, 1987; Wei and Griffin, 1998; Rosen and Arcan, 2003; Yoshimura et al, 2005; Liang and Chiang, 2006). A few recent studies reported the effect of vehicle vibration on arm reaching movements through the description of fingertip deviation from a desired trajectory (Rider and Chaffin, 2003, 2004). The present work investigates the variation of vibration transmissibility to upper extremities as a function of dynamic posture changes along the intended reach trajectory. Dynamic reach movements in the direction of targets distributed in the right hemisphere of a vehicle operator are analyzed as a function of vibration characteristics and movement directions. Thirteen subject performed right hand reach movements in various directions to final/end target location as well as intermediate target locations selected along the trajectory of movement performed to the end target. The established database of upper body segments transmissibility is used to develop an active biodynamic human model.
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