Rishik Tatavarthi
Pronouns: He,Him
Research Mentor(s): Kathleen Klinich
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Transportation Research Institute / Engineering
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Oral5
Session: Session 5 – 3:40pm – 4:30 pm
Room: Breakout Room 4
Authors: Rishik Tatavarthi, Kathleen Klinich
Presenter: 3
Abstract
Vehicle manufacturers use the H-point (the approximate location of the hip joint center of a seated midsized male occupant) as a reference origin when designing vehicle interiors and occupant protection systems. To help automakers develop integrated wheelchair seating stations for automated vehicles, it will be helpful for them to know the range of H-point locations that could be expected among occupants using different types and sizes of wheelchairs as seating. UMTRI has a database of crash tested wheelchairs that include pretest photos of each wheelchair. For this project, we used ImageJ and Google Drawings to digitize wheelchair dimensions from these photos, scaling the photos from a known distance on the test fixture. To approximate the H-point location, we superimposed a 10 cm circle tangent to each wheelchair seat and seatback. A zone of H-point locations measured on a range of wheelchairs will be included Design Guidelines for Accessible Vehicles being written by the research team.
Engineering
