Dissertations and Theses Fall 2013 An Ergonomic Evaluation of Aircraft Pilot Seats Yolanda Nicole Andrade Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Daytona Beach Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.erau.edu/edt Part of the Aviation Commons, and the Ergonomics Commons Scholarly Commons Citation Andrade, Yolanda Nicole, "An Ergonomic Evaluation of Aircraft Pilot Seats" (2013). Dissertations and Theses. 14. https://commons.erau.edu/edt/14 This Thesis - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. An Ergonomic Evaluation of Aircraft Pilot Seats by Yolanda Nicole Andrade A Thesis Submitted to the College of Arts and Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Human Factors and Systems Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach, Florida Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Problem Statement .................................................................................................................................... 1 Purpose Statement ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Review of Literature ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Ergonomics ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Comfort ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 Comfort Models. ................................................................................................................................... 7 First Impressions ..................................................................................................................................... 11 Assessment Measurements ..................................................................................................................... 13 Objective Measures. ............................................................................................................................ 13 Pressure Distribution Analysis. ........................................................................................................... 13 Motion Analysis. ................................................................................................................................. 15 Postural angles analyses. ..................................................................................................................... 16 Subjective Measures. .......................................................................................................................... 17 Integration. .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Sitting ...................................................................................................................................................... 19 Seat Design ............................................................................................................................................. 21 Effects of Poor Seat Design. ............................................................................................................... 21 Seat Design Criteria. ........................................................................................................................... 23 Hypothesis .............................................................................................................................................. 27 Methods ...................................................................................................................................................... 29 Participants .............................................................................................................................................. 29 Apparatus ................................................................................................................................................ 30 Seats. ................................................................................................................................................... 30 Measures. ............................................................................................................................................ 33 Design ..................................................................................................................................................... 36 Procedure ................................................................................................................................................ 37 Results ......................................................................................................................................................... 41 Actigraph. ............................................................................................................................................ 41 iii Pressure Pad Data. .............................................................................................................................. 42 Comfort Questionnaire. ....................................................................................................................... 44 Body Map Rating. ............................................................................................................................... 45 Demographics Compared. ................................................................................................................... 46 Initial versus Final Comfort Perception. ............................................................................................. 48 Discussion ................................................................................................................................................... 50 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................................. 54 References ................................................................................................................................................... 57 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................................. 64 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................................. 66 Appendix C ................................................................................................................................................. 67 Appendix D ................................................................................................................................................. 68 Appendix E ................................................................................................................................................. 70 Appendix F.................................................................................................................................................. 72 iv List of Tables Table 1 ........................................................................................................................................................ 29 Table 2 ........................................................................................................................................................ 32 Table 3 ........................................................................................................................................................ 33 Table 4 ........................................................................................................................................................ 37 Table 5 ........................................................................................................................................................ 38 Table 6 ........................................................................................................................................................ 42 Table 7 ........................................................................................................................................................ 43 Table 8 ........................................................................................................................................................ 45 Table 9 ........................................................................................................................................................ 45 Table 10 ...................................................................................................................................................... 46 Table 11 ...................................................................................................................................................... 46 Table 12 .....................................................................................................................................................