Experimental investigation of preferred seating positions and postures in reclined seating configurations
Résumé
In highly automated vehicles, new activities such as working, relaxing, or sleeping may be allowed for all occupants including drivers. Vehicle interiors will likely need to be adapted to accommodate these activities, and current interior concepts include reclining seats. To design these new seats, some knowledge of the preferred occupant postures in reclined seating conditions would be valuable. However, past studies mainly focused on preferred postures for driving. When reclining the seatback to adopt a relaxed position, occupants may also desire to modify the seat pan angle. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the preferred seat pan angle and occupant posture in reclined configurations. Two test experiments were performed. The first one focused on the preferred minimal and maximal seat pan angles selected by 18 volunteers for three seatback angles (21, 40, and 60 degrees from the vertical). The second one evaluated the seating postures of 13 participants corresponding to 11 seating configurations by combining 3 seatback angles (21, 40, and 60 degrees) and 4 seat pan angles (14, 27, 40 degrees from the horizontal, and self-selected). Results suggested that the preferred seat pan angles increased when reclining the seatback, especially for the preferred maximal seat pan angles. Concerning the occupant posture, the pelvis angle was influenced by both seat pan and seatback angles; but the pelvic angle variations were smaller than the seatback and seat pan angle variations.
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