Task analysis and comfort evaluation through simulations: Differences between subjective perceptions and simulated data in the case of car-hood lifting

Abstract

The preventive evaluation of perceived (dis)comfort during the early stages of the design process is still an open issue. In Car development process, all tasks that involve human operations have to be taken into account while thinking and developing new solutions. Fortunately, modern technologies like CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) and DHM (Digital Human Modeling), and some new simulation software, like AnyBody™ or Jack© by Siemens PLM, allow to investigate, through simulation, some of the aspects related to comfort perception in humans. In addition, the software named CaMAN®, developed at University of Salerno, allows the postural comfort evaluations of upper limbs. The questions to which this paper tries to give answers are: (1) Is it possible to correlate the simulated muscular activation with perceived (dis)comfort during a manual task? (2) How different are the subjective perceived (dis)comfort, rated by the Borg Scale and the (dis)comfort index calculated by software?.