Human Factors and Ergonomic Studies for the Car Manufacturing Industry

1 Mohamed Benali Khoudja, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique/List/SRSI/Lems, Fontenay aux Roses Paris, France, Phone : (+33) 146 54 97 06, Fax: (+33) 146 54 75 80, [email protected] 2 Guillaume Moreau, Robotics Center, Ecole des Mines de Paris, 60, boulevard Saint-Michel, 75272 Paris Cedex 06, France, Phone : (+33) 140 51 94 98, Fax: (+33) 143 26 10 51, [email protected] 3 Philippe Fuchs, Robotics Center, Ecole des Mines de Paris, 60, boulevard Saint-Michel, 75272 Paris Cedex 06, France, Phone : (+33) 140 51 94 98, Fax: (+33) 143 26 10 51, [email protected] 4 Panagiotis Stergiopoulos, Robotics Center, Ecole des Mines de Paris, 60, boulevard Saint-Michel, 75272 Paris Cedex 06, France, Phone : (+33) 140 51 94 98, Fax: (+33) 143 26 10 51, [email protected] Abstract  In the car manufacturing industry, the trend is to try to drastically reduce the time-to-market for new products in order to remain competitive. The Robotics Center (Ecole des Mines de Paris) has developed a methodology for the design and evaluation of Virtual Reality (VR) applications. The idea of this experiment is to go beyond the capabilities of traditional ergonomic software by using VR techniques. The major drawback of ergonomic software’s such as Safework or Jack is the lack of sense feedback.. The tester is not able to validate the sensation of comfort associated with the commands of the dashboard. This is also true for the IMAVE system. In this context, a large project was initiated by a French car manufacturer and the CEA/LIST (specialized in force feedback systems) to address the following issue: to what extent can the forcefeedback systems be used to study the ergonomics of a car? It is essential to take into account the human user while designing the Virtual Environment (VE). The level of his perception outlines the level of realism required. In the case where force feedback is used, a correct model of the haptic loop should contain a dynamic model of the user, as his existence and actions affect decisively the total performance of the system. Based on these aspects, we have used human factor methods in order to reproduce the dynamic characteristics of a push button.