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This paper presents the results of an experimental study conducted to evaluate the effects of four material characteristics and two driver characteristics on the perception of automotive interior materials. The perceptual characteristics of the materials were measured using two sensing conditions, namely, visual sensing only and combined visual and tactile sensing. The experiments were conducted using the Taguchi's L16 orthogonal array with seven independent variables, namely material type, surface roughness, compressibility, driver's age, driver's gender, and sensing method. Twenty-four subjects participated in the experiments. Each subject was asked to evaluate four treatment combinations and provide ratings using seven 5-point semantic differential scales. In addition, physical measurements were made on surface roughness, coefficient of friction, and compressibility.

This paper presents results of two surveys, namely, a photographic measurements survey and a rider survey, conducted to determine how the type and origin of a motorcycle related to motorcycle dimensions, rider characteristics, seating posture, and motorcycle controls and displays. In the photographic survey, 12 most popular motorcycles covering three types (cruiser, sport, and touring) and three origins (Europe, Asia and North America) were measured from photographs taken in a standardized procedure with and without a rider. The data showed that the Asian and North American cruisers were very similar in all dimensions. These include seat height, seat to handlebar location, seat to foot rest location, foot rest size, and handgrip stance. This resulted in similar rider posture. North American sport motorcycles were more like cruisers than the Asian and European sport motorcycles.

The objective of the paper is to present a unique design approach and its outputs: the design concepts for automotive center consoles for a near term SUV that can be produced in 2-3 years, and the second for, a more futuristic SUV, that could be produced in 10 or more years. In the first phase of this two phase project, we benchmarked center consoles from a number of existing and concept vehicles, analyzed available data (e.g. J.D. Power customer feedback surveys), and conducted studies (e.g. survey of items stored in the vehicles, item location preferences in the console area) to understand customer/user needs in designing the center consoles. In the second phase, we provided the information generated in the first phase to four groups of student teams who competed to create winning designs of the center consoles.

This paper presents a design and development approach for automotive bucket seat frame using a parametric modeling and a finite element analysis methodology. This approach is expected to help build a lightweight seat structure quickly and efficiently. This approach is general, and it can be applied in designing and developing any mechanical structural component. The design process involves, first parametric modeling of the front bucket seat frame using Pro E. This CAD model was then optimized using optimization software called Optistruct, for two cases of load case and boundary condition. The optimized design was then tested for FMVSS seat requirements using LS-DYNA. The dynamic nature of the design approach helps in changing design parameters during different stages of the design process, until the seat structure satisfies the design criteria and the strength requirements. The construction and testing of this design and the design model are still under progress.

This paper presents results of a research project conducted to develop a methodology and to refine the specifications of a small, low mass, low cost vehicle being developed at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The challenge was to assure that the design would meet the needs and expectations of customers in three different countries, namely, China, India and the United States. U.S, Chinese and Indian students studying on the university campus represented customers from their respective countries for our surveys and provided us with the necessary data on: 1) Importance of various vehicle level attributes to the entry level small car customer, 2) Preferences to various features, and 3) Direction magnitude estimation on parameters to size the vehicle for each of the three markets.

This paper presents a process and its results used to define and design interior items such as controls, displays, handles, etc. for a low mass vehicle (LMV) being developed at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The exterior and interior design of the vehicle was done by students at the College of Creative Studies, Detroit. The size of the low mass vehicle is comparable to the current C-class production vehicles (such as Ford Focus), but it will weigh about 30% less than the Toyota Echo. The vehicle is targeted as a low cost, entry level, small car for markets in China, India and the United States. To assure that the feature content would be suitable for the three potential markets, students from China, India and the United States available on the UM-Dearborn campus were interviewed. The results from the survey were used to refine the exterior and interior features and content of the vehicle.

This paper describes a unique interior design and multidisciplinary process implemented by the faculty and students to develop the interior for a Low Mass Vehicle (LMV). The 103 inch LMV was designed with the goal of about 30% reduction in weight than a typical class C segment vehicle and would require low investment in manufacturing. In the early stages of the program, the UM-Dearborn team developed detailed requirements of the vehicle interior based on the vehicle's exterior developed using a similar process. The requirements were given to a senior class of automotive design students from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit to create different interior design themes. Approximately twenty-five interior design themes were judged by a panel of automotive industry experts, and a winning design was selected.

A fixed base driving simulator called the VVDS (Virtual Vehicle Driving Simulator), its operating procedure and software system have been developed by a team of automotive suppliers (called ACE -- Advanced Cockpit Enabler) for quick evaluations of early working prototypes of driver interfaces. The system is designed to provide quick feedback to the product designers in early concept generation and validation phases of new automotive HMI architecture strategies and interfaces of various in-vehicle devices. The simulator consists of a reconfigurable cab with quick-change attachments to mount various controls and displays in package positions. A number of drivers are asked to drive the simulator and perform a number of tasks when prompted by pre-recorded voice commands. The entire data collection and data analysis procedure is developed such that new experiments can be configured, implemented and analyzed quickly and with the least amount of a human analyst’s involvement.

This paper present a unique and comprehensive design process that has been pilot tested to assure that future automotive cockpit systems are well integrated, cost effective and they achieve superior ergonomics performance. With ever increasing possibilities of new technological feature content and tremendous cost pressures, the auto manufacturers have a challenging task to provide the customers with the latest features at affordable costs in shorter design cycles. The Automotive Cockpit Enablers (ACE) team consisting of seven automotive suppliers and two universities has created a unique process to approach the problem. The process consists of a series of steps and inter-workings of three cross-functional teams.

A fixed-base driving simulator with a 14-degree of freedom vehicle dynamics model was used to compare the lane tracking performance of test subjects using a joystick steering controller to that using a conventional steering wheel. Three driving situations were studied: a) straight-line highway driving, b) winding road driving (country road), and c) evasive maneuvering - a double lane change event. In addition, three different joystick force-feedback settings were evaluated: i) linear force feedback, ii) non-linear, speed sensitive force feedback and iii) no force feedback. A conventional steering wheel with typical passenger car force feedback tuning was used for all of the driving events for comparison.