An Integrated Anthropometrics, Vehicle and Biodynamics Software Tool""

The objective of this proposed project is to create an integrated computer program for designing vehicle-mounted human operator workstations and analyzing the biodynamic environment under operational conditions. This program will address: anthropometricsfor reach and vision analysis; vehicle dynamics for vibration and ride quality analysis; biodynamics for human motion in response to force inputs; dynamic systems analysis of human transmissibility and optimization of elements such as seating constraints.A software specification for typical design and analysis problems is being developed in Phase I that will efficiently and accurately address biodynamic problems. The team members own the source code that will be integrated (i.e. JACK, VDANL, BIODYN-80 andProgram CC). The innovation is to provide complete biodynamic models and dynamic systems analysis tools that will allow the characterization of biodynamic environments according to standard guidelines, and provide a means for evaluating the biodynamicinterference with visual and motor task performance. Representative tasks such as reaching, reading displays, driving will be accommodated as a vehicle encounters selected terrain profiles at specified speeds. The overall Phase II objective is to developand validate a prototype of the integrated software package based on past work and an experiment to be conducted at TACOM-TARDEC.AVB-DYN will provide a specialized biodynamic tool for predicting human operator task performance on moving vehicles or other platforms in arbitrary environments. This has application to workstation design in a wide range of military and commercialapplications. These include military ground vehicles, ambulances, entertainment motion simulators, fire engines, off-road vehicles, agricultural equipment, rotorcraft, fixed wing aircraft, high speed boats, and certain industrial facilities.