Conceptualization and Ergonomic Analysis of a Typical Unicycle

An unicycle is a fast growing vehicle for undergoing transportation. Due to several advantages of unicycle when compared to other vehicles, an effort is made in this work to study the existing design of unicycle in the Indian market and provide the comfortable drive to the unicyclers. The existing design lacks on the prospects of stability and safety. The drawbacks identified in the existing design were concentrated as critical aspects in this work. The critical aspects include forward and backward stability, uncomfortable rider posture-handle bar -pedal relations. For maintaining the stability, continuous human attention and control is needed otherwise it may lead to the fatigue problems to the rider who rides the unicycle. The concepts were generated using freehand sketches to resolve the problems in existing design. The concept evaluation has been done using Pugh chart selection matrix. The selected concept is modelled using CAD software and ergonomic analysis is done using CATIA V5 using the Indian anthropometric data.

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