Paths of Movement of Body Members in Aircraft Cockpits

Abstract

This paper describes an effort to study the simultaneous motion trajectories of a large number of human body landmarks of a pilot during upper limb motions typical of those necessary to fly an aircraft. The objective is to gather engineering anthropometric data necessary, from a human engineering point of view, in the design of aircraft cockpits and other similar manned work stations. Twenty subjects participated in an experiment conducted to record the movements. A photographic procedure combining slow speed motion picture and interrupted light photography was employed to record the movements. This paper describes the procedure and also presents a set of typical paths of movement obtained through such recording. Also mentioned are some of the preliminary findings regarding the motion characteristics of parts of the human body.