Advanced Engineering Forum Vol. 10

Abstract: A vehicles head-up display (HUD) device enables the driver to obtain information, such as driving speed and engine conditions, to ensure safety while keeping the eyes focused on the front windshield. However, no complete and sufficient reference data are available regarding the extent of the drivers acceptability of the information displayed by such a device. Thus, this study aims to examine the drivers visual perception of the vehicular information pattern displayed by the HUD device and its influence on safe driving. The scope of this study includes the scope of the images displayed, quantity of information displayed, distribution and size of information, display brightness in different scenarios, suitable method of information display, correctness of interpretation, and so on. The researcher has built different scenarios for each item studied and analyzed the viewing effect through a questionnaire survey. A database can be built based on such data in the future. This database will contribute to the development of vehicles display systems and verification of similar future studies.

Abstract: Todays global competition has prompted many automotive manufacturers to design their products based on consumers preference and satisfaction. A car driver controls the vehicle and his/her comfort and safety is important to avoid any road injury or unfortunate accident. There are three main objectives for this paper. This paper is to investigate the relationships between car drivers anthropometric characteristics, comfortable postural angles and seat adjustment, to analyze the force distribution on the car seat and to design a driver car seat that gives comfort and safety ergonomically to the driver. In this case, the measurements need to be taken for both car and the driver and also to propose a design a driver car seat that provides comfort and safety to the driver. This design should be based on ergonomic factors including design, materials used and safety. These findings enhance our understandings of car drivers perceptions of posture comfort and safety. The data findings and relationship discussed will assist the manufacturers in designing a drivers car seat with ergonomics value.

Abstract: Anthropometric measurements are critical dimensions when considering human interface design. This is especially true in vehicle package design where the interaction of the drive with the vehicle interior components need to be precisely determine as a mismatch between them would not only be detrimental to the drives comfort but driving performance and safety as well. In the past car makers often depends on standard databases derived from population that are not necessarily suited to the local population. Among the key concerns are the anthropometric measurements values and body ratio which would drive the design requirements of the vehicle package. Thus this paper describes the study which has been done to understand Malaysian Anthropometry in comparison of current available databases. The results shows significant differences in body proportion which may lead to the necessity to further study the effect of this differences.

Abstract: Nowadays, back pain has contributed huge percentage to Malaysian drivers during driving. Bad or awkward sitting posture may cause fatigue and musculoskeletal pain to the driver due to long distance driving or maintained for a long time. Therefore, it is essential to do the survey on the impact of these elements for the driver based on our Malaysian road conditions. The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between different physical categories (age, height, weight and gender) and psychophysical experience on focusing with the degree of comfort ability drivers on Malaysian road condition. The survey should be conducted in random by taking sample from difference categories of drivers in order to get fair result. The experiment has been conducted to define the effect factors of level comfort during thirty minutes driving on the actual road. The result show, aging is one of the factors have significantly higher absolute discomfort for drivers aging from 43 to 53-54 years old with driving in the descending road. In the other hand it is shows that the discomfort ability of drivers can be influences by the driving experience, weight, height and gender of the drivers. Thus, it can be conclude, Malaysian drivers mostly feel discomfort when driving at the descending road and winding road compare to two others road.

Abstract: A cross-sectional observation surveys was carried out among 6 to 12 years old child pillion riders travelling to and from schools by motorcycle. The study focused on prevalence of multiple child pillion riders, to determine the relationship between child pillion riders safety helmet compliance and their seating position and foot peg utilization. A total of 701 riders and 913 school children were observed. Riders safety helmet use rate was significantly higher (66.8%) than as compared to child pillion rider helmet use (14.7%) with OR=11.7 (95%CI 9.2-14.9). It was observed that 29.1% riders were carrying more than one child pillion riders; with female rider are more likely to carry more than one pillion rider (OR=1.6, 95%CI 1.1-2.2). Observation on utilization of foot peg showed that back motorcycle pillion rider (BP) were more likely to use foot peg as compared to middle motorcycle pillion rider (MP) (OR=11.7, 95%CI 7.8, 17.5). Safety helmet use by child pillion rider on the route to school is generally low. Furthermore, there was a significant difference for child pillion rider safety helmet use compliance according to seating position. Children who were seated in the middle are less likely to use safety helmet. Rear child pillion riders had higher chance to utilize motorcycle foot peg. To increase the prevalence of helmet use and safety of children, there is a need for public awareness campaigns on the safety benefits of safety helmets use among school children and ergonomically designed motorcycle while riding.

Abstract: The ability for motorcycle to be detected is an important aspect in preventing crash involving motorcycle which is the most dominant vehicle in emerging countries. Widely referred as conspicuity, the crash factor is appropriately addressed by the introduction of mandatory daytime running light (DRL) law and is usually a success story in many parts of the world. In 2011, there was a motion introduced in the 64^thsession of the United Nations Working Party on Lighting and Light-Signalling (GRE) for amber position lamp (APL) to be made mandatory on motorcycle as additional measure to improve motorcycle conspicuity. An experiment was designed to evaluate conspicuity level of motorcycle headlamp and tail lamp equipped with APL over motorcycle with present DRL setting (baseline). 15 participants simultaneously rated both motorcycles which are placed in parallel, at different distances and times of day. Motorcycle with APL was noticeably better detected from rear than front at 50 meter and 100 meter distance, as well as during night time and twilight. Median conspicuity level between night time and daytime and between night time and twilight was also distinctly different for rear lamp. These findings suggest that APL introduction could enhance motorcycle conspicuity especially for rear lamp position.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explain the assessment of validity and reliability of measured items used in survey research. The structural equation modeling techniques and Partial Least Square (PLS) will be adopted to assess the goodness of measures of constructs used in a model to examine the performance of the Malaysian train drivers. The measurement process involves assessment of construct validity of the items and followed by convergent validity. Then, the composite reliability was assessed with internal consistency measure of Cronbachs alpha. Lastly, discriminant validity was tested to assess the validity of the measurement. The constructs are not supposed to measure other constructs or overlapping constructs.

Abstract: Road accidents involving bus in Malaysia is very alarming. National statistics showed that bus accident cases increased significantly at 48% between the year 2006 and the year 2008. This study focuses on design of bus concerningon ergonomics factors to eliminate injury that may pose to bus passenger either in collision or non-collision event. Data sourcethat used for this paper were obtained from bus a carried out at PUSPAKOM. This study managed to assess 224 samples and collected measurement for items stated in UN R36. Several design issues that can potentially contribute to passenger injury such as doors, seats, handrail and steps are highlighted and discussed in this paper. Findings from this paper revealed that current regulation already address the critical measurement to ensure passenger safety is taking care while in the bus. However, some related items seem to be obsolete and need to be revised accordingly.

Abstract: Main causes for discomfort experienced by vehicle drivers during driving were investigated using a rigid-body model originally developed in the AnyBody Modeling System [. The interactions between the human body and the car-seat in various combinations of seat-pan/backrest inclinations and the effect of pedal spring stiffness were analyzed using an inverse dynamics approach. To deal with the muscle redundancy problem, (i.e. the problem with the human-body containing more muscles than necessary to drive its degrees of freedom) a minimum-fatigue criterion [ was utilized. The results show that various seat adjustments (e.g., seat-pan and backrest inclinations) and the pedal spring stiffness have complex influences on the muscle activation and spinal joint forces of the human body. From the results, an optimal adjustment for the car-seat is proposed, i.e. the backrest inclination is 10° and the seat-pan inclination is between 0o to 5 o. This study can in general capture the overall interactions between human body and environment (i.e. the maximum muscle activity and spine forces), which is thought to be the factors of driving fatigue.