Computer manikin family usage in human accommodation

Commonly percentiles are used to define users’ bodily dimensions. The percentile approach is however not suitable for multivariate problems such as the design of car cockpits, i.e. where a range of body segment dimensions affects the design. An alternative way is to use a set, a family, of manikins for evaluation that better represents human variety. The aim of this study was to compare seat and steering wheel adjustment ranges obtained when using manikin families or a percentile approach as the user representation in human simulation software. Results obtained indicate that a more elaborate and careful consideration of users can be achieved when using a manikin family approach for human accommodation compared to a percentile approach.